Diagnose Your Own Magical Maladies
by SammyisGrace
Summary: Hermione gets the book "Diagnose Your Own Magical Maladies" as a gift from her parents, what happens when she starts having strange symptoms? What does Draco Malfoy have to do with it, and who are Damien and Emily?
1. The Hogwarts Express

**Chapter 1- the hogwarts express.  
><strong>Opening disclaimer: throughout the story, if you recognize a line, character, location or idea, it's not mine, I don't claim it, and it probably belongs to J.K. Rowling. Ok? Great. I will not be repeating this disclaimer each chapter, so please remember it. :D Thanks.**  
>AN: And so I start my first ff. I hope you like. I don't know how good I am at writing, so please try to give me a break. Please read and review. Thanks a ton! This story assumes that Harry defeated Voldemort in his sixth year and all the death eaters were either killed or put in jail. Draco's father, Fred, Dumbledore and Sirius were all killed.<strong>

Hermione listened to music as she packed for her seventh and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had her radio blaring, her window open, and her cat was sitting on top of her dresser watching her pulling clothes out of the drawers and putting them into her trunk which she had placed, open, at the end of her bed.

Hermione had gotten her booklist only a week before, a Head Girl badge accompanying it. She had been so excited, as had her parents. They had bought her a brand new book called _Diagnose Your Own Magical Maladies_ as a reward. She had professed an interest in becoming a healer, so they gave this to her in encouragement.

Now she was to board the Hogwarts Express the next day and she couldn't wait. She wanted to know who would be the Head Boy.

She turned off the radio and closed her trunk, she finally had everything packed. She went downstairs to eat some dinner before bed.

Her parents were up; she spent a little time talking with them before heading upstairs again and crawling into bed.

* * *

Draco sat on him bed as a house elf packed his trunk for him. He had gotten the Head Boy position, earning himself a new owl from his parents. He had named her _Mí_ pronounced like _me._ He really wanted to know who the Head Girl was, but he was too nervous to guess.

Leaving his room he went in search of a quiet book room where he could read something in peace and quiet. He didn't want to think about her anymore than was completely necessary. He had been trying to pretend he didn't like her; he'd been trying for about six years. His successes varied.

"Draco dearest," His mother's honey-sweet voice called to him as he was walking down one of the many corridors of the Manor.

"Yes mother." He called over his shoulder, slowing down, but not stopping.

"Where are you going? I would love it if you would sit and talk for a while with Miss Parkinson and her parents; they are in the blue lounge."

Draco groaned inwardly. He hated Parkinson, but their families were friendly, so he had no choice but to associate with her. He allowed himself one pleading look towards his mother before heading in the opposite direction.

"Hello Pansy." He said when he entered the blue lounge and found her with her parents, talking softly. "Hello Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson. How are you this evening?" He asked politely.

"We are fine thank you." replied Mr. Parkinson. "I hope you and your family are doing well." Draco nodded in acknowledgment of the comment and walked over to the window and looked out over the grounds.

"I see the wild flowers are flourishing this year." Mrs. Parkinson commented.

"Yes, they are. My mother is quite taken with them, she says they are the most colorful that she's ever seen them." Draco turned away from the window and offered some drinks to his guests. They accepted and Draco called for a house elf, who brought some vodka for the adults and white wine for Pansy and Draco.

"It is getting late." Draco observed. "I believe that I will just finish this drink and then I'll head to bed. We do have to get up early and take the train tomorrow."

"That we do." Said Pansy. "You're going to sit with me, right Drackie?" She asked sweetly.

"First of all," he responded, trying to be patient. "Don't call me Drackie, and second of all, I have to sit in the Head's compartment because the Head Girl and I have to sort out some things."

"You're Head Boy Drackie?!" Pansy squealed, completely ignoring the first part of his statement. "Why didn't you tell me!? That's so great! Who is this head girl?" The last question was spoken with an accusatory voice.

"Yes I'm head boy." He said patiently. "I didn't tell you because I only found out a few days ago and forgot that you didn't know. And I haven't got a clue who the Head Girl is, but we have to discuss what our plans are for the year all the same."

"Oh." Pansy said dejectedly. Draco drained the last of his wine from his glass, called an elf to take his glass away, and stood up.

"I bid you good night." He said, bowing to Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson. "I will see you tomorrow." This he directed at Pansy before vacating the room. He returned to his room, trusting that the Parkinson's would be dealt with. He did some last minute sorting out of his things before crawling into bed and going to sleep.

* * *

Hermione sat in a compartment, waiting for Harry and Ron to find their ways to her. She had just waved good-bye to her parents. She pulled out her new book and began to read. She didn't have any symptoms to diagnose, but she pretended anyways. She had 'diagnosed' herself with at least five different magical maladies before the boys finally pulled back the sliding door and joined her.

"How was your summer Hermione?" Ron asked. He fancied Hermione and she knew it, but she just didn't feel that way about him. She was dreading the day he would get up the courage to ask her out.

"It was ok. My parents bought me this new book." She said, holding up the book to show them. "Isn't it great? I can already start learning about how to be healer." She smiled, showing them her enthusiasm.

"Yeah," said Harry, "I wish my Aunt and Uncle would by _me_ a book for me to study and learn from, I love more work!" He said with mock gusto. All three of them burst into laughter. Once they had calmed down, Hermione explained.

"I had wanted it last year, but it's a really expensive book, so my parents said no."

"What changed this year?" Ron asked.

"They got it for me as a reward." She just loved teasing them with information.

"A reward for what?" Harry asked, knowing that if she was teasing them like this it meant that she was really excited about her news.

Hermione took a deep breath. "I got the Head Girl position." She said quickly, before being enveloped in hugs from both of her friends.

"That's fantastic!" Said Ron.

"That's really great" Agreed Harry.

"Who's Head Boy?" They both asked together.

"I don't have any idea. I wish I did. I hope it's someone that I can get along with. I hear that we have to share a common room, away from the house dorms. He better be someone who's willing to do his fair share of the work." The boys smiled, knowing that no matter who it was Hermione would do most of the work herself, since that was the only way for it to be just the way she liked it.

Hermione, Harry and Ron talked about everything they could think of to pass the time.

* * *

Draco sat in the Head's compartment, wishing that the Head Girl would get there soon so that he would look busy if Pansy came by looking for him. He was also curious as to who it was. He just sat there, keeping himself busy by reading and sleeping. When the trolley lady came by with the sweets he bought some and asked her if she knew who the Head Girl was.

"Why of course dear!" She replied. "How else would I be able to make sure that none but the Head's were in here?" She smiled.

"Who is it?" He asked.

"Nope." She said. "If you don't know yet, then I can't tell you, you have to find out from her." Draco was very frustrated.

"Then when you go by her compartment could you send her here please." He asked. "We need to go over some stuff for the beginning of the year." She nodded and said that she would, and then she left, leaving Draco to his thoughts.

* * *

The Trolley came by Hermione's compartment; the woman popped her head into their compartment. "Anything off the trolley dears?" she asked. After they had all made their purchases she turned to Hermione. "You are Head Girl, correct?" She asked.

"Yes." Hermione replied, confused.

"You should go to the Head's compartment." The woman continued. "The Head Boy is there, waiting to go over some beginning of the year stuff, or so he says. It looked like he was just bored and wanted someone to talk to, but that's just me." She smiled and turned to go.

"Wait," said Hermione. "Who is the Head Boy?" She asked.

"I can't tell you." The trolley lady said. "You'll just have to go and find out for yourself." And with that she left. Hermione stood up.

"I'm going to go see who this Head Boy is and what he needs. I'll be back later." The boys said bye and she left, walking down the train to the Head's compartment. Once she reached it she stopped, took a breath, and opened the door.

"Hello." She heard from her right. She turned to see who it was and found herself face-to-face with a very blonde person.

"Malfoy." She said.

"Granger." He replied.

"You're Head Boy? Seriously?" She asked, skeptical.

"Yes Granger, surprise, surprise, I should have guessed that you would be the Head Girl, oh well. I was hoping for someone better looking." Draco snarled.

"Always so kind Malfoy." Hermione observed. "You really shouldn't say such nice things to me; people will think you like me or something." He laughed.

"_Me_ like _you?_ That's rich Granger. No matter how nice I act, no one will ever be stupid enough to think that I could ever like you!" He laughed, though she noticed that it didn't reach his eyes. "Unless," he amended, "unless it was Weasely, he is rather stupid now isn't he?" One of Draco's infamous smirks played across his face at that last comment.

"Oh shut up Malfoy." Hermione said, frowning. This year was going to be very interesting, difficult too, with her and Draco trying to work as a team. "The trolley lady said you wanted to talk to me about something to do with the start of the year. It was either that or you were just bored and wanted to talk to somebody, one or the other." Draco's smirk fell from his face.

"Yes, I wanted to talk about the possibility of dances this year. The one in our fourth year was fun, so I thought why not have them this year too? They could be for all years until ten, and from then on only, say, fifth year and up." Draco looked at her, saw her face and added, "Don't look so surprised Granger, I do have bright ideas every once in a while. You won't get to do all the planning by yourself; I'm going to be the type of Head Boy that is actually involved in the goings on. I'm not afraid of hard work."

"I'm sorry, I just wasn't aware that you had already put so much thought into this year. Sure, dances would be fun, some formal, some semi-formal, some casual. I like the idea of letting all the years attend for some portion of time." She thought for a second. "How do Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day and summer sound for occasions for dances? I think costumes for Halloween, formal for Christmas, casual with a color requirement for Valentine's Day and semi-formal for summer. Sound good?" Draco blinked.

"Yeah, sounds great, but we should find some paper and a pen to write this all down or we'll forget it." Hermione smiled.

"I have a secret to tell you." She beckoned him to her; he came a bit closer and turned his head to put his ear closer to her mouth to hear the secret. "I'm a…witch!" She giggled. "I can conjure us some. But, shhh, don't tell anyone." They both laughed. Hermione did indeed conjure up some paper and a couple pens. They wrote down all of their ideas, expanding them as they went. Soon they realized that they needed to change into their robes.

"I'll go." Draco offered, since they didn't want to change in the same room.

"No," said Hermione, getting up. "I promised Harry and Ron that I'd see them again before the train stopped, so I have to go anyway. I'll see you later."

"Bye." Draco said as she left the room. As he changed he thought the same thing as Hermione was thinking walking down the train. They were both stunned that they had managed to pass several hours just talking, working and even sharing a few jokes and laughs. They both were thinking that maybe this year wasn't going to be too bad. ****


	2. The Beginning

Chapter 2- the beginning.

**AN: I hope you like this story; I'll be doing my best. Please leave reviews, they help a ton and they brighten my day very much! :D Thanks! **

Preoccupied and thinking about the last few hours, Hermione reached the compartment where Ron and Harry were still waiting for her. She pushed the door open and began to enter, but she stopped due to the fact that the boys were yelling at her. She blinked and looked up at them in surprise, curious as to why they were angry with her. Then she blushed, ducking her head, apologized and backed out of the compartment.

The boys were changing into their robes.

Hermione went to one of the many train bathrooms and stepped inside. She locked the door and changed out of her muggle clothes and into her school robes. She then vacated the restrooms and returned to the compartment. This time she knocked, and upon hearing Harry and Ron give her the ok, she re-entered the room, sitting herself next to Harry.

The last half hour of the train ride was uneventful and passed relatively slowly as they all were eager to get to Hogwarts. With about five minutes to go Hermione stood up, announcing that she had to ride to Hogwarts in the boats with the first years as she was the Head Girl. They groaned but agreed. Suddenly Ron realized something.

"Who is the Head Boy Hermione?" In the changing fiasco the boys had forgotten to ask this question and Hermione had conveniently neglected to mention it.

"Oh." She said, her face falling. "Um…now don't be upset, I'm sure it will work out fine-"

"Who is it?" Harry interjected with a serious tone, recognizing her 'dallying and dancing around a question' act that she often did.

"D-Draco Malfoy." She replied in a rush, watching as their jaws dropped and their eyes popped.

Draco had just escaped Pansy Parkinson just moments before, after painstakingly explaining that he really did have to ride in the boats with the first years since he was the Head Boy. She had protested and clung onto him and been tremendously annoying but eventually she had relented. He was now sitting in the Heads' compartment waiting for Hermione so that they could proceed to the boats together.

"Sorry I'm late." She said as she entered the compartment. Draco stood up.

"Well hello Granger." He sneered, only remembering just in time that he had to be the nasty one. "Slow as always."

"I was on time," Hermione explained. "Until Harry and Ron remembered that they hadn't asked me who the Head Boy was. And of course, upon hearing that **you** were the Head Boy, they forced me to sit and listen to them lecture me on reporting every little thing you say or do to them immediately. Great friends, but a little too overprotective I think." She smiled. "To the boats then?" Draco agreed and they began to make their way to where they could clearly see Hagrid over the heads of the student population, shouting out and collecting the first years. "Hello Hagrid." Hermione greeted the half giant. "How was your summer?" She asked him politely and earnestly.

"Great." Hagrid replied. "Grawp an' me did lots a talkin' t'getha. E's really commin along." Hagrid turned to the group of first years gathered around him. "We're t' ride t' the castle in the boats. This way."

Hermione now sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall with Harry and Ron watching the sorting of the first years. The boat trip had been long and uneventful, but she had enjoyed seeing all of the first years so nervous about how the sorting process worked, imagining all the worst possible ways of determining ones house. She and Malfoy had not spoken, but that was simply because they were in separate boats.

After the sorting had finished and Professor McGonagall had given the start of term speech, the food appeared and everyone began to dig in. Hermione wasn't that hungry; so she ate her full and sat patiently for the others to be finished. She watched as Ron practically inhaled his food in an absolutely disgusting manner, she coughed to try and get his attention so that she could glare at him, but his eyes never left his mountainous plate of food. Harry wasn't that much better, but at least he was eating at a slower pace than Ron. Hermione's eyes drifted towards the Slytherin table and she searched for a certain obnoxious blonde boy. She was happy to notice that he, although also a very hungry male, ate with proper manners and at a reasonable pace, he did not make a mess and he used his napkin rather than his sleeve. Hermione smiled to herself and averted her gaze.

At Professor McGonagall's say-so, Hermione stood to lead the Gryffindors to their common room, finding the new first-years and paying close attention that they didn't get separated from her. She noted that Malfoy was doing the same for the Slytherin first-years and that the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff prefects were taking care of their houses. Satisfied that she need not do anything else just yet, she took the Gryffindors to their common room, told them the password, explained a few important things to them and then left to retire to her new accommodations.

When she got there she noticed that Malfoy had yet to get there, so she decided to enjoy the peace and quiet by sitting in an armchair by the fire and reading a book. She found one of her favorite books, which she had read at least fifty-billion times, and settled down by the fire.

Draco had just finished with the members of his house, so he began to make his way back to his room in the Heads common room. When he got there he noticed that the fire was going, it was only September 1st so he knew that the elves hadn't lit it, Hermione must have. He walked up to the fire, not noticing the girl in the chair behind him, and put his hands out to feel the warmth. He felt none. It was then that he realized that the fire was lit for light and comfort, not for warmth and as such it had a charm on it so that no heat was felt. He scanned the room looking for the smart little witch that had cast the spell, but couldn't find her. Then he looked down a bit and saw her, fast asleep in the armchair nearest him, with a book propped open in her lap. He walked a little closer to her and gently lifted the book from her lap; he was going to do a fun little experiment with the bookworm.

When Hermione finally awoke it was very late, approximately two in the morning, so she immediately went up the stairs to her room, made the password to her room _Magical Maladies_ and got into bed, still fully dressed, kicked off her shoes and fell right asleep.

The next morning she got up and went to take a shower. Of course, Malfoy was in there. _Knock Knock_. Hermione banged on the door to the bathroom. "Malfoy" she yelled over the sound of the pounding water. "Please hurry up; I need to shower before breakfast!" She heard a muffled "eh" took it for a 'yes' and went back to her room, arranged her outfit and packed her bag, got everything ready for as soon as she got out of the shower, and went back to the bathroom to see if he had left. She raised her fist to knock on the door, not noticing the slight sliver of light indicating that the door was already open, and rapped on the door. It swung open immediately, revealing a half-naked Malfoy with only a towel around his waist. He was doing his hair in the mirror when the door opened. Hermione was so shocked that the door had been ajar that an "oh my" escaped her lips before she pressed them tightly together, blushed profusely, closed the door again and returned to her room. The next time she checked on the bathroom it was empty and she took a quick shower, got dressed and ready, and went down to breakfast. She was only too happy that she had not seen Malfoy again since the bathroom incident.

Draco smiled while eating his breakfast. He had noticed how flustered and embarrassed Granger had been upon seeing him in the bathroom with naught but a towel on. He had heard her inconspicuous "oh my", had seen her evident blush and had been humored to see that she had stared openly at him. She obviously had liked what she'd seen. _But who wouldn't?_ Thought Draco. He smiled again, thinking about how she'd been too disconcerted that morning to notice a certain missing item of hers.


	3. The First of Many

Chapter 3- the first of many.

**AN: I hope you like it, let me know. I really appreciate reviews and I always respond. **** Let me know if I get too terrible OOC. Thanks!**

A few days passed and nothing really exciting happened. Draco and Hermione didn't really talk much, or even see each other very often, so it worked out well. That is, until Hermione finally felt like she was far enough ahead in each subject that she could relax and read a pleasure book. Funnily enough, she couldn't seem to find the one she was looking for. She searched her room, the common room, all of her class rooms and she even went to the library to see if someone had found it and returned it to the library by mistake, they hadn't.

"I don't know where it could be!" She exclaimed over breakfast that Saturday. Harry and Ron were sitting with her looking at her sympathetically. They knew how much that book meant to her and were well aware of how much trouble she was going through to find it.

"Have you asked Malfoy?" Harry asked. Both Ron and Hermione looked at him like he was crazy.

"Why would I do that?" Hermione asked. Harry rolled his eyes at his two best friends.

"Because, he is living with you, maybe he's seen it recently. Or maybe he found it in the common room, didn't know it was yours, and decided to read it." Hermione pondered that for a moment.

"I guess it's worth a try." She amended. "Thanks Harry, I'll go right now to see if he's up yet." And with that, she got up and left the great hall to go find Malfoy.

Hermione tip-toed up to Malfoy's door, not wanting to wake him if he was still sleeping, the lazy bum, she knocked on the door quietly and was shocked to hear a faint "come in" from the other side. She pushed the door open and stepped inside. She looked around the room, trying to find the blonde slytherin that she was looking for.

"Hello?" She called, unable to find where he was.

"Yeah?" She heard that same faint voice say, but this time she was able to locate where it had come from. She walked over to the bed and peeled the covers back just far enough to see Malfoy's face. "Granger?" He asked, confused. "What are you doing in my room this early?"

"First of all" she started "it is not that early anymore, it's near ten o'clock in the morning, and second of all" she continued "why would you say 'come in' if you didn't want the person to enter? Why not just say 'piss off'?" She had a little bit of edge in her voice, frustrated a bit with Malfoy, but mostly with the fact that she still hadn't found her missing book.

Hearing Hermione say "piss off" was apparently shocking enough to make Malfoy sit straight up in bed and look at her quizzically, though that might also have been from the tone in which she had said it. "Um…" he muttered "I don't know. What did you want to say?" He asked it mostly to get her off the topic of him saying stupid things in the morning. He saw her visibly deflate at what he'd said, though he didn't know why that would make her sad.

"I was just wondering if you had seen a book of mine, it's gone missing and I can't find it anywhere!" Malfoy immediately knew what book she was talking about and where it was, but he wasn't going to tell her that just yet, he wasn't done having fun.

"What book?" He asked mildly, though he knew it was a mistake as soon as he'd said it, it was too calm for any talk between him and Hermione.

"Diagnose Your Own Magical Maladies. By Beth Klend." She said, apparently not noticing Malfoy's too-cool reply. "Have you seen it?" She asked this eagerly, hoping to be relieved of her sadness. She had no suck luck with Malfoy though.

"Nope, never even heard of it. Sorry." He almost regretted saying it when he saw how depressed she looked, almost.

"BAAA!" Hermione let out her pent up frustration, completely forgetting where she was and who was sitting in the bed right in front of her, she was so mad that she just exploded. "GOD!" She screamed, kicking the wall next to her. Malfoy was almost scared of her, this was not the way she usually acted, even when she was mad at him for something. Apparently books were of greater importance. "I CAN'T FREAKING BELIEVE THIS! WHERE THE HELL CAN A BOOK GO! I DON'T EVEN OWN ANY THAT CAN MOVE ON THEIR OWN!"

She was stomping around Malfoy's room, pulling at her hair, punching and kicking anything that she came in contact with. Malfoy wanted to get up, be his usually arrogant prick of a person and yell at her for kicking his stuff and then kick her out of his room, but the sight of her all pissed off about a book was just too amusing, and terrifying. He smiled at the scene she was making. Unfortunately for him that was the moment she chose to remember that he existed.

"I'M SOOO GLAD THAT THIS IS ENTERTAINING FOR YOU MALFOY! I WOULD HATE TO BORE YOU WITH MY FIT!" Malfoy made the mistake of letting his amusement get the better of him just then and a laugh escaped him. He tried to cover it as a cough but, as usual, Hermione was smart enough not to fall for it. "YOU FIND THIS FUNNY? YOU FIND THIS BLOODY FUNNY? MY BOOK IS GONE! THE EXPENSIVE BOOK THAT MY PARENTS GOT ME AS A GIFT IS GONE!" Suddenly, as much to Malfoy's astonishment as to Hermione's, her knees gave way and she landed in a heap on his floor. Then she was crying and completely breaking down.

Malfoy didn't know what to do with himself. Should he comfort her? No, that was too nice and she was Granger after all. Then should he kick her out? No, she might punch him in the face, and she had a good right hook. He compromised by getting her a handkerchief to use. True it was one of his good ones, embroidered with green thread to say D.M. but it was the first one he found.

She took it without a word and used it to dab at her eyes and she calmed down and began to breath normally again. She looked up at his confused face. "What?" she asked.

"I've just never known anyone to get so worked up over a book, even one given as a gift." He observed. She merely blinked at him, said her thanks, got up from the floor and left his room.

What Draco did after Granger left his room, he is not proud of. He went to his closet and found the book. He leafed through it quickly, just to see if there was something extraordinary about it. Of course, there wasn't. And then he did a nice thing, to his disgust, he hid the book in an easy to find place in the common room, the couch cushions.

That Sunday Malfoy woke to a scream from the common room. He jumped out of bed and ran downstairs, thinking someone had broken in or something else terrible. Then he saw Hermione standing next to the couch, the cushions all messed up. She had found the book. "I can't believe I found it!" She screeched. "I swear that I looked here, but here it is! OH MY GOSH! I'm sooo happy that I found it!" She simply gushed with excitement. "I have to go tell the others!" And she rushed from the portrait, leaving a very amused Malfoy behind.

It wasn't until she was halfway to Gryffindor tower that she realized that he had only been clad in his boxers and that that had been the second time she had seen him so scantly dressed. Even worse was when she realized that she didn't really mind.


	4. The Costume

Chapter 4-the costume.

**AN: Please read and review. :D **

Over the next week nothing much happened out of ordinary. Hermione and Malfoy were seeing an awful lot of each other, planning the Halloween dance. It had been agreed that, since Halloween was on a Friday this year, that the dance could go from seven pm to ten pm for years one through four and until one am for years five through seven. But some things weren't agreed on so easily.

"No." said Malfoy, "Not a chance. It should be encouraged, not required. I refuse to do that."

"But even if it was only encouraged you'd have to, you're Head Boy! You need to set a good example." Hermione argued.

"But costumes are so lame! They are for muggles."

"No they're not! Costumes are fun and they are going to be mandatory for admittance to the Halloween dance. It's the theme of Halloween, to be something that you're really not." Hermione said. She thought she saw sparks emit from her body, not her wand, her body. But that was impossible, so she dismissed it as a trick of the light.

Malfoy and Hermione had been arguing over that particular problem for two days. The dance was two weeks away. If they wanted it to have costumes mandatory they would have to post the dance notices right away and organize a Hogsmeade trip soon. Eventually they went to professor McGonagall and she agreed that costumes were appropriate for Halloween and the posters were made. The Hogsmeade trip was set for that very weekend. All students were allowed to go, no matter if they had permission or not, for the purpose of something to wear.

"What are you planning to be Ginny?" Hermione asked as she and Ginny browsed the store's contents. They had found a tiny little costume shop that the other students did not appear to have discovered. It had a rather large collection. They were a bit more adult, but they were cute all the same.

"I'm not sure, something that makes me look nice." She replied. She turned to Hermione with her stack of possible costumes. "I'm going to go try these on. I'll show you all the ones I like and you can help me decide."

"Ok. I'll keep looking for one for me in the meantime." Hermione returned to searching the racks while Ginny tried on her costumes.

They had decided that Ginny looked gorgeous in the pirate costume, but had yet to find one for Hermione.

"Hey Ginny."

"Yeah."

"Do you think, since the idea is to be something you're not, I could maybe wear a costume that people don't expect me to wear? I'm just tired of everyone always seeing me as the same nerdy little innocent bookworm. I mean, I am a nerdy little bookworm, but I've always hated being too predictable. Could you help me surprise everyone? Help me pick a costume no one would suspect?"

"Sure, I think that's a great idea. I mean, my costume isn't what my family would expect me to wear, they think I'm still their innocent little girl, but I'm still wearing it. You can do the same. I'd advice one of these costumes over here."

The next week went by with much excitement over the upcoming dance. All the girls in the school were excited to show off their costumes and the boys were just looking forward to getting to see the girls in their costumes. Harry and Ron had found nothing wrong with revealing what their costumes were, Harry was going to go as a Medieval Knight and Ron was going as the devil. Hermione refused to tell them what she was going to go as. She had noticed that her wand hand hurt a lot of the time lately, but she just put it down as being due to stress.

When the day of the dance came, classes ended at three, to give people time to get ready. Malfoy went to get ready with the rest of the Slytherins and Hermione invited Ginny to come get ready with her, since they'd have the whole Head's dorms to themselves.

First on the girls' list was to take nice long bubble baths. Next they did their nails, discussed hairstyles, put the costumes on, did each others' hair, did their make-up and pronounced themselves finished. When they were done it was already six o'clock, but they didn't want to leave the room until six fifty because they didn't want to spoil the surprise. Hermione had covered herself in a cloak so that when Malfoy came he wouldn't see what she was wearing. She had been forced by Professor McGonagall to promise to walk into the dance with Malfoy, since they were the Heads. Once everyone else was inside and seated at one of the many round tables set up around the dance floor, they were to enter side by side and great everyone. They were to remind people of the curfew for younger students and wish everyone a pleasant evening. This of course, meant that Malfoy was going to come shortly before seven to the common room to escort Hermione downstairs. But she didn't want to take her cloak off until the very last minute. She was slightly embarrassed by her costume, though Ginny assured her that she looked fantastic in it.

The girls talked and joked until the time came for Ginny to head down. They said goodbye and she left. Shortly after that Malfoy came to get Hermione. He was dressed as a posh rich bachelor, which didn't seem like much of a costume to Hermione, since he really was posh and rich and if he were older he could be described as a bachelor. But he wasn't about to change and he did look good in it.

"What's your costume Granger?" Malfoy asked as they made their way to the door of the Great Hall.

"You'll see when we go through the doors. Until then I'm keeping my cloak on." Malfoy smirked at that.

"Why? Did you dress up as a nerd to try to surprised everyone, realized you looked the same and are now ashamed of your costume? Or did a friend of yours convince you to wear something hideous? Because no one would be surprised." He laughed, to show that he was only being his regular hostile self, nothing more. Hermione glowered at him but said nothing, knowing full well that he would be surprised.

They finally reached the doors. Hermione had charmed her cloak so that it would disappear as soon as she walked through the doors but not a moment sooner. The doors opened before them and Malfoy and Hermione walked into the Great Hall. They were met by all the students, seated at their tables. All eyes turned to them, and at the sight of Hermione, many jaws dropped.

Seeing their reactions, Malfoy turned to look at the girl standing next to him. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. The blushing Hermione was dressed as…

**AN: Sorry it's short, but I didn't want to reveal what she's dressed as yet. Please review! Thanks!**


	5. The Dance

Chapter 5-the dance.

**AN: Here's the next chapter. I hope you like it. Please read and review!**

Seeing their reactions, Malfoy turned to look at the girl standing next to him. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. The blushing Hermione was dressed as a nurse. But the costume seemed to be missing a fair amount of fabric. Hermione had picked her costume because she wanted to be a nurse eventually, so it matched who she was, but it was also extremely revealing, which did not match what everyone saw her as.

The costume was a two piece. The bottom half was just a pair of red bikini bottoms. The top half went down to just above her belly button before flaring out to the sides. It was white with red around her middle and white crosses to show it was a nurse outfit. It had a red collar and white short sleeves. She wore knee-high white socks and red high-heeled shoes with it, had a stethoscope around her neck and a little nurses hat that was white with a red cross. She had had Ginny magic her frizzy hair into ringlets of curls, framing her face and she wore pink blush and red lipstick. Her nails were painted red as well. The overall effect was that she looked sexy and very un-Hermione.

"Um…" Hermione began, since she had to do what Professor McGonagall had told them to do, "Welcome to the Halloween dance. Please remember that students in years four and below must leave at ten o'clock and for those students in years five to seven, the dance ends at one o'clock. Please remember to behave yourself of you will be asked to leave. Have fun and enjoy the dance." She smiled and motioned to the band to start playing. They did and some people began to dance and talk. Many of the people did not, they were still busy staring at Hermione.

Ginny rushed over to her and smiled. "Hey! You look adorable!" She assured Hermione.

"Thanks. So do you! I saw Harry staring at you when I came in." She smiled slyly at the younger girl in front of her.

"Yeah, but once you came in, not a single girl in the room could hold any guys attention away from you. You made quite and entrance. I noticed Malfoy looked stunned."

"Yeah, he'd mentioned just a few minutes before how he bet my costume was ugly and lame, so it was a bit of a shock for him." The girls started walking over to where Harry and Ron were still staring at Hermione disbelievingly. "Hey guys, you do know that it's rude to stare, right?" She smiled as their jaws dropped even further.

"Her-Hermone what di-did you do?" Ron stuttered. Hermione frowned.

"I didn't 'do' anything. I just wore a costume to the Halloween dance. Ginny did too. Everyone did. I'm no different."

"Yes you are!" Harry insisted. "You never dress like this. What are trying to say? What are you trying to prove?"

"Well! I'm not trying to prove anything! I picked this costume because it matches with what I want to be after leaving Hogwarts!" Sparks emitted from her eyes, literally. Harry and Ron jumped back a bit. Hermione turned on her heel and went to get a drink of punch. When she reached the punch table, a cup floated over to the punch bowl and filled itself. She didn't remember enchanting the punch bowl to fill the drinks, but she just assumed Malfoy must have done it and soon forgot all about it.

Hermione spent most of the dance with Ginny. Lots of guys asked her to dance throughout the night, and she didn't always say no. She was mad at Ron and Harry for making it sound like she was never pretty normally and that she really was a goody-goody nerd, so she danced with Dean, Seamus, Zacharias Smith and even Blaise Zabini. The dance that infuriated the boys the most was when Hermione danced with Draco Malfoy, but she hadn't even chosen to chance with him, Professor McGonagall had told them that as the Heads they had to dance with each other at least once. Malfoy didn't mind though, not when Hermione was dressed as she was.

At ten o'clock the younger students left and the dance continued until one in the morning. At that time Hermione found Malfoy so they could say the final words.

"We just want to thank you all for coming." Hermione began. "We hope you had a wonderful time and enjoy your weekend! Please go back to your house dorms and remain there. There shouldn't be any students wandering around in the hallways. Happy Halloween everyone!" With that, people started to file out. Hermione used her want to clean up the Great Hall.

"Ginny!" Hermione called, getting the redhead's attention. "Do you want to have a sleep over with me?" She asked. Ginny agreed and they went back to the Head's dorm together. When they got their Hermione said that she'd feel better if she just let Malfoy know that she had a friend over, so she sent Ginny up to her room and quickly went up the stairs to knock on Malfoy's door.

"Yeah?" His voice called from the other side of the door.

"It's Hermione, may I come in?" She asked. After hearing his 'sure' she pushed open the door and stepped in. Malfoy was sitting on his bed, taking off his shoes. He looked up when he heard her enter. He smiled inwardly at the sight of her, still in her costume.

"What do you want?" He asked, not unkindly.

"I just wanted to let you know that I had Ginny sleeping over with me tonight. I thought it might be best that you know." She said. "If we get to loud, just let us know. We don't want to be a nuisance."

"Sure thing." He said. She stated to back out of the room. "Oh, and Granger," Malfoy said. She stopped and looked at him. "Nice costume." She smiled, spun on her heel, making the sides of the shirt flare up and accent the red bikini bottoms, and left with a bounce in her step.


	6. A Trip Around the Lake

Chapter 6- a trip around the lake

**AN: Here's the next chapter! Please read and review. **

The day after the dance was slow. No one got up before ten o'clock in the morning and the house elves only made lunch and dinner due to lack of students at breakfast. Hermione was no exception. The crazy night before had exhausted her, especially since she had stayed up very late with Ginny. They had done all of the typical girly sleepover things. They painted each others nails with mood-polish, a nail polish that reflected one's mood. They played truths until Hermione lost. They ranked all of the boys in years five through seven in order of hotness, niceness, smartness, date-ability and friend-material. They also played a game called _Ultimate Dare_. Only one round can be played in any given day, so only one dare is given to each person. They dares _**must**_ be performed, no exceptions. The girls were feeling particularly silly and weak that night and their _Ultimate Dares_ were merely letting them dye each others hair without knowing what color it was going to turn out. They dye would stay in for three full days, seventy-two hours. Ginny ended up with bubble-gum pink hair and Hermione had freshly-cut-grass green. They looked absolutely ridiculous, but there was nothing they could do about it, since one of the rules they had set before hand was that they could not cover their hair during those three days.

Hermione and Ginny stayed in the Head's common room all morning, nervous about going down to lunch. Hermione felt that she had gotten the sore end of the stick. Her green hair looked out of place and weird, but Ginny's pink actually looked pretty cute! The girls did not encounter Malfoy the entire time they were down in the common room, which was good. He was obviously sleeping in and Hermione was glad for it. She was not entirely sure how she should act around him. He had almost seemed human the day before and she had acted fun and flirty around him. She was much happier not to have to deal with him just yet.

"How do you think the boys will react?" Ginny asked, referring to Harry and Ron.

"Harry will totally think you're hot, since you are! And Ron with probably say something along the lines of, 'Hermione, how could you? This is my little sister! She can't look like this!'. You know how overly protective he is!" Both girls giggled.

"He'll probably be to busy being stunned to say anything. I don't think either will be able to believe that you let me dye your hair. They think you're too conservative for that." The girls giggled again, anticipating the interesting reactions that they would receive when they went to lunch.

"Speaking of their reactions," Hermione said, "we should head down to lunch pretty soon." They ran up the stairs to Hermione's room and changed into appropriate apparel. They left the dorm and slowly made their way to the Great Hall, getting more and more nervous all the way.

When they finally entered the Great Hall, they were a bit disappointed. The students were all so tired from the night before that few of them had gotten up yet, leaving the Great Hall mostly empty for lunch. Luckily for them, the prospect of a whole day to play Quidditch was enough to get Harry and Ron up in the morning, even the day after the dance. By the time Hermione and Ginny had reached where the boys were sitting along the Gryffindor table, heads had begun to turn and stare, the few heads that there were. Hagrid guffawed at the sight of them. When the boys finally turned their eyes upon them, their pupils dilated and their eyes were so far open that they appeared to be literally popping out of their heads.

"What did you do to yourselves?" They asked together. They looked taken aback by the girls' bright hair.

"We played Ultimate Dare. No biggy." Ginny replied. "It will go away in a couple of days.

"Well, as long as that's all." Ron mumbled under his breath with a sarcastic tone as he sat down on the bench and pulled a massive amount of food towards him. He was ravenous from an excess of sleep and lack of breakfast.

The boys said nothing more during the entire meal, too hungry to do more than just stuff their faces. Hermione and Ginny attracted many stares that morning, as people came down to lunch, but many of them were approving. It seemed that many people liked their bravery and audacity. Plus, Ginny looked very cute with her pink hair.

Eventually the girls got tired of waiting for the boys to finish eating, so they went for a walk around the lake. When they had made it half way around they ran into Draco Malfoy, skipping stones. When he finally saw them, he stopped what he was doing and turned to stare.

"What are you doing Granger? First the skimpy costume and now the green hair, are you trying to confuse people and make them think that you are what you're not?" Hermione's eyes opened wide. How dare he?

"How do you know that this isn't who I am? How dare you say that I am trying to make people 'think that I am what I'm not'?" She did not like his tone of voice in his accusation.

"Whatever Granger, you know that you are just an innocent little know-it-all. It is very odd for you to be doing such outlandish things. You really shouldn't act like you're Weasel here, she can get away with being skanky, but you can't pull it off." Malfoy started to walk away, but Hermione's words stopped him.

"You are such a jerk Malfoy. I can 'pull off', as you say, anything that I want to, and Ginny is not skanky! You really should learn manners; otherwise people are just going to think that you really are the little ferret that we all know you hide inside of you." Malfoy was livid. He detested people bringing up the ferret incident. It was a bad memory for him. He spun on his heel to face Hermione again.

"Shut up, mudblood." Hermione nearly gasped.

"I thought that you had been taught not to be a naughty boy." She said, patronizingly. "You know that you could get into serious trouble for calling the Head Girl that, even if you _are_ the Head Boy." Malfoy only smirked and began to walk away. Hermione, despite her outward appearance of tranquility, was very upset at him calling her a mudblood. In retaliation, as she and Ginny returned to the castle she shot a trip-jinx over her shoulder. She smiled, pleased immensely, when she heard a splash, telling her that Malfoy had fallen into the lake.

**AN: Please review. **


	7. All's Fair in Love and War

Chapter 7-all's fair in love and war.

**AN: Hey! Here's the next chapter. **** Please read and review! **

Draco stood, waist deep, in the Black Lake. The Giant Squid was swimming not ten feet away from him. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the mudblood had jinxed him into the lake. There was no way he was going to let just get away with it. He had to retaliate somehow. As he stepped out of the Lake, dried himself magically and began the walk back up to the castle he pondered this idea. By the time he had reached the Heads' Dorm he knew exactly what he was going to do. _This means was!_

Hermione's beautiful green hair, which had caused quite the gossip throughout the four houses, had finally washed out. Ginny's had as well. They were back to normal, or as normal as they ever were to begin with. They entered the Great Hall together that following Monday. When Hermione took her seat at the Gryffindor table, a rather loud farting noise emitted from her skirt. Hermione looked shocked. She had not farted; she knew that for a fact. All of students were staring at her, many were laughing. Ron, Harry and Ginny were looking at her like she had gone insane.

"I swear" she defended herself, "that I made no such noise. If this wasn't Hogwarts I would think there was a whoopee-cushion on the bench. Ginny, is there such a thing as a whoopee-cushion spell?" Hermione's words were a bit rushed in her hurry to declare herself innocent. Ron guffawed. Hermione's blush deepened.

"Actually," Ron said once he had gained control of his laughter, "there is such a thing as a fart jinx. Maybe it was one of those." The grin that Hermione could see in his eyes gave away the fact that Ron didn't believe that it was a jinx. Just then, Hermione made eye contact with Malfoy. He was grinning maliciously. He said a speech spell and Hermione heard, in his clear voice, as a whisper in her ear. _That was for the trip into the Lake. You're welcome._ Hermione fumed. She did not dare to tell Harry and Ron what it was, they would just try to beat up Malfoy and end up getting themselves hurt, or worse, in trouble. Hermione excused herself from the table and went to her dorm.

Once safely in her room with the door locked, she used her time wisely. She still had a quarter of an hour before her first class was to start. She needed to figure out what to do, she had to fight back. She didn't remember doing anything to Malfoy to deserve the punishment that he had given her. What trip into the Lake? What was he talking about?

Hermione finally decided on a course of action, much unlike her usual self. She planned a prank on Malfoy, a good one. At least, it was good in her opinion. She was pretty new at misbehaving, so she wasn't entirely sure what was a good or bad prank, they all seemed pretty bad to her.

During potions, Draco noticed that all seemed to be normal. He was expecting her to try something, but nothing was out of place. The mudblood was in her seat, reading the instructions on the board as usual, and the Weasel had already managed to turn his potion a heinous puke color that was frothing and bubbling. As Draco poured his potion into the vial to turn into Professor Snape, the potion disappeared. It was no longer in the vial and it was not in his cauldron either. They had been working on a potion to make a person break out into terrible boils. Why, Draco didn't have a clue. When Draco heard something odd, he looked up. Hanging in mid-air above him was the entirety of the previous contents of his cauldron. He didn't even manage to get a scream out before the whole potion tipped onto him. Within seconds Draco was covered in big read boils and screaming for Professor Snape to do something.

"What did you make Draco? You were supposed to be making Amortentia! Amortentia would not have caused boils if spilled." Snape said, distressed at having such a situation in his classroom.

"The board said to make a boil potion." Draco argued, but when he looked up at the board it read; _Follow these instructions and brew Amortentia. Pay close attention to the amounts, do not overuse the ingredients. _

Draco's mouth fell open, where had the boil potion instructions gone? He looked over at Hermione and saw her smirking, very un-Hermione-ish-ly. She, of course, had brewed the correct potion and Draco just knew that she had caused all of this to happen to him.

"You filthy little mudblood," he sent to her in another speaking spell, "you will pay for this." Hermione just kept one smirking, as if nothing had happened.

Suddenly Hermione gasped and hugged her wand hand to her chest, as if in pain, dropping her wand in the process. She glared at Draco, but he just looked bewildered, he hadn't sent any curse or jinx or spell at her. It wasn't him that was causing her pain. Her pain proved to be so severe in her wand hand that she grabbed her book bag, shouted an excuse to Professor Snape, and ran from the room.

Once everyone had left for their next class, Draco went over to where Hermione had been working and bent down. He retrieved her fallen wand from the floor and pocketed it.

Hermione sat on her bed in the Heads' dorm. She needed to get to Herbology or risk being late, but she couldn't find her wand for the life of her. She couldn't remember ever letting it leave her pocket, so she finally gave up. Wands were rarely needed during Herbology anyways.

When on her way to Transfiguration after Herbology, Hermione ran into Draco, literally.

"Watch where you're going." He sneered at her.

"I was." Hermione replied tartly. Draco backed up a step, sparks were spitting from her hands, and he knew for a fact that she did not possess her wand. He could have sworn that he'd seen sparks coming even from her eyes.

"Whatever freak." He replied before hurrying on his way. Hermione was confused as to why he would have reacted that way to her, but she wasn't too troubled.

In Transfiguration class, they were asked to turn their partner's eyes red and to give them horns or antlers. Hermione had yet to find her wand, and so she merely sat next to Ron while he focused on performing the spells on Harry. She was thinking about how it would be done, since Ron obviously had no clue. She thought that it would have been more fun if they had been asked to give their partner pink eyes, since pink was the hardest eye color to make, and to give them a single horn, since it was easier to make them in pairs.

Her concentration was broken by Ron shouting and Harry bursting out laughing. When she looked at the two of them she was shocked. Ron had pink eyes and a single horn. He looked like a human unicorn. "What the…?!" Ron exclaimed. Professor McGonagall was at their table in seconds.

"What is the meaning of this? Mr. Potter?" She was glaring. "This is not what the assignment was. And Ms. Granger, would you care to explain why you do not feel that you need to participate in class? Being the Head Girl does not exempt you from class work." Hermione blushed.

"That wasn't me Professor." Harry rushed to assure her. "I wasn't even the one attempting a spell, Ron was trying to do it to me." Professor McGonagall looked skeptical.

"Was that you then, Ms. Granger?"

"I, I don't know." Hermione replied, unsure of herself.

"What do you mean you 'don't know'? Surely you would be aware if you cast the spell. And I doubt that anyone in the room other than you could do it. As I'm sure you know, it is vastly more difficult to make the eyes pink and it is marginally more complicated to produce one horn rather than a pair of horns. Now please," she said sternly, "explain yourself."

"Well, Professor, I was thinking just that, that this could have been made much more difficult by assigning pink eyes and one horn, I did not intend to, nor did I believe that I could, cast any such spell, but as I was thinking about it, I must assume that it was me. I am terribly sorry." She took a breath before continuing. "The reason that I hadn't been participating before was because I seem to have misplaced my wand. I didn't believe that I could do magic without it, as I have never heard of such a thing, so I was merely watching. Apparently I was wrong; I seemed to have cast the spell just fine without my wand and indeed, without even speaking the incantation aloud." Professor McGonagall merely stared at her in shock.

Hermione then took her leave of the classroom to do some research. When she reached her dorm she heard a cough from the chair by the fire. She went over and saw Malfoy sitting there reading. He was twirling a wand in his right hand while he read. She gasped.

Draco looked up when he heard her gasp. "Hello" he said casually.

"_You?_" She said incredulously. "You stole my wand?"

Draco shrugged. "You dropped it, I merely picked it up so that nobody would step on it and break it."

"I never dropped it." Hermione defended.

"Yes you did, when you got that pain in your wand hand, you dropped it and then ran from the room." Hermione blinked, vaguely remembering the situation that he described. "By the way," Draco continued, "I did not send any spell at you. I was not the cause of your pain. For once in your life." The last part was mumbled softly. Hermione was shocked. "I only took your wand in retaliation. You got me covered in boils."

"But you started it!" Hermione gushed. "What was with the fart jinx this morning? What in the world did you mean by '_That was for the trip into the Lake. You're welcome._'? That made no sense. I haven't been to the Lake in a while." Draco was looking at her like she had lost her mind.

"No, you were there the day after the Halloween dance. We argued and you sent a trip jinx at me, making me fall into the Lake." He said it kind of slowly, as if talking to a person with a small mental capacity for understanding human speech. Hermione struggled to remember. By the time the memory finally came to her, she had been standing still thinking for over five minutes. Confused by all of the things going on in her life at the time she rushed up to her room.

Once she reached her room she closed and locked the door. She ran to her bed and got down on her hands and knees. She stretched her arms under her bed until she came in contact with something hard. She pulled it out, opened the lid to the box, and pulled out her pristine copy of _Diagnose Your Own Magical Maladies._ She was finally going to get some answers.

**AN: Please read and review. Important stuff will be revealed in the next chapter! **


	8. The Revelation

Chapter 8-the revelation

Draco was not sure what had made Hermione run off like that the night before, but he sure was not going to forget her momentary laps in intelligence. He was determined to find out what exactly was going on with her, no matter what it took.

Hermione was searching. She had, for the last five minutes, been tapping various symptoms with her wand tip. The way _Diagnose Your Own Magical Maladies_ was organized, the first twenty pages were a list of possible symptoms. By tapping a symptom with her wand, Hermione was able to quickly locate the diseases commonly resulting in those symptoms.

After searching for a five more minutes, Hermione decided to try something new. She used a special spell to tap multiple symptoms at the same time and search for possible diseases that result in all of the chosen symptoms. She soon found that she had four possible diagnoses.

_Deficio Veneficus__-_

This rare magical disease is a failing in ones magic. It can be cured by

advanced medical care. Most doctors can correct the problem. This disease

often results in pain of the wand hand, spasm of the wand, unintentional

magic and a green complexion. If you believe that you have this disease,

please report to your nearest magical hospital immediately and seek

treatment. This **is** a contagious disease.

_Veneficus Flabra_-

This magical malady is often described as a blast or burst of magic. It is

relatively common and often results in unintentional magic, sparks from

places other than the wand, extraordinary magical ability and simple spells

doing much more than they are intended for. This malady is temporary and

will eventually go away on its own. If it does not go away for more than a

week and a half, seek medical attention. This malady **is not** contagious.

_Fluxi Magus_-

This magical disease is **very** serious. It **is not** contagious, but it is also

irreversible. There is, as of yet, no cure found for this disease. If you believe

that you suffer from this disease, please seek medical attention, they can

make you comfortable while you wait it out. This disease results in the

complete loss of one's magic. It is extremely rare, but it does happen.

The symptoms are pain in the wand hand, unexplainable sparks,

unintentional magic, memory loss, weakness of magic and eventual

destruction of the wand itself from the diseased magic coursing through it.

_Hicca Magicus_-

This malady is relatively rare. It is nicknamed a 'hiccup' in one's magic. This

is not a very serious malady and can be easily treated. However, once

one has this malady it **will not** go away on its own. If you believe you have

this malady please seek medical attention. Common symptoms of this

malady are short-term memory loss, pains, unintentional magic, sparks and

extreme mood swings.

Hermione read these choices over and over again. She did not find it likely that she had Deficio Veneficus, seeing as how her hair was still its nice, warm brown color. She found it most likely that she had Veneficus Flabra or Fluxi Magus. She was really hoping for the former, but her symptoms better fit the latter. She was terrified. She decided that she needed a walk around the lake to calm her nerves. She made it down the stairs before realized that she probably should not take her nice, new, valuable book with her outside. She left it on the table in the common room and went on her walk.

**AN: Please review, thanks!**


	9. The List

Chapter 9-the list.

Reminder:

"She made it down the stairs before realized that she probably should not take her nice, new, valuable book with her outside. She left it on the table in the common room and went on her walk."

New Chapter:

That was where Draco found the book when he came down from his room, planning on sneaking down to the kitchens for a snack. He saw the book lying open and could not resist the temptation to see what Hermione had most recently been reading.

Once he had read the four diagnoses that were on the page, Draco suddenly understood. She was not suddenly lacking intelligence, she was sick. He re-read the four diagnoses and did not particularly like the sound of any of them. Knowing which ones most likely fit her symptoms best, he was curious as to how Hermione was taking it. She was not in the common room, so he knocked on her bedroom door, planning on teasing her about forgetting her things downstairs, but she was not there either. Deciding to get everything sorted out later, Draco headed up to bed.

Hermione came back from her walk around the lake having made a decision. If indeed she did have Fluxi Magus, or even if she did just have Veneficus Flabra, she was not going to let that interfere with her life. If she had Veneficus Flabra, then it would go away on its own, if not, she did not need to be made comfortable, she was going to live her last months to the fullest. She had no intention in the slightest of telling anybody, and she was firmly resolved not to go to the nurse. She picked up her book, not even noticing that it was not where she had left it, and went to bed, determined to treat each day like it was her last.

The next day Hermione made good on her promise to herself. She woke up as early as she comfortable could, so that she might have as long of a day as possible. She took a nice, hot shower and dressed in a pair of cute, light colored, tight jeans and a skin tight, brown shirt. She put on a pair of brown ballet flat, magically dried her hair, and used a spell she had read about once, which made her frizzy brown hair smoother, with soft curls, rather than uncontrollable ones. She wore a simple silver chain around her neck with a locket as its only pendant. Inside the locket she had a tiny picture of her parents on their wedding day, and a tiny picture or Ron, Harry and her one summer at the Burrow. She put on a pale blush, light eye-shadow and a peach colored lip-gloss. She looked much prettier than usual, since she never put real time into her looks, and she was happy. She packed up her books; leaving _Diagnose Your Own Magical Maladies_ locked safely in her room, and headed down to breakfast.

When she entered the Great Hall, a few heads turned. She definitely looked different from usual, but most people just smiled, a bit surprised, nodded approvingly and returned their attention to their food and conversations. When Ron and Harry saw her they were shocked.

"Why so dressed up?" Ron asked through a mouthful of food. "What's the occasion?"

"There is no occasion," Hermione replied, "I just decided to spend a little bit more time getting ready in the morning, that's all. And please" she added, "don't talk with your mouth full. It's disgusting."

Both boys shared a look, a bit confused by her sudden desire to look nice, but left it at that, not wanting to make her angry.

Draco had not seen Hermione in the common room that morning, since she'd left so early, so as soon as he entered the Great Hall his eyes searched her out. His jaw nearly dropped. She was acting normally, eating and chatting with her friends, and she looked fantastic. He was stunned. She obviously had not told her friends. Knowing Scar-head and Weasel, they would be worrying over her like crazy if they knew. Draco was not quite sure what to make of her reaction, but decided that it did not matter. It just meant that he might be a bit safer to tease her since she was taking it so well.

The first day was relatively mild. Other than dressing up and looking nicer Hermione did not do anything too shocking. Realizing that she needed to really enjoy herself, Hermione resorted to her safeguard. She went to the library.

Hermione looked up recreational books for once in her life. She was doing research, but for once no textbook would be able to help her. She used wizard newspapers and diaries and teen books in order to create a list of the most important things one must do before you die. She knew that she was extremely unlikely to fulfill several of them, but she wrote them down anyways.

Her list, in no particular order, looked like this after her 'research':

Skip classes for a whole day, with a friend, and just goof off.

Kiss a guy.

Drink alcohol.

Try drugs.

HStay up all night to watch the sun set, look at the stars and watch the sun rise.

Bathe in chocolate.

Dance barefoot in the rain.

Have sex.

Write a book.

Become an animagus.

Buy and wear lacy thong and bra.

Learn to speak a foreign language.

Learn to play an instrument.

Read all the biggest Classics.

Attend a masked Ball.

Dye your hair.

Get your belly button pierced.

Get a tattoo.

Befriend somebody you don't like.

Fall in love.

Hermione was happy with her list, although she knew the unlikely hood that she had of ever fulfilling them all.

She promised herself that she would at least _try_ to complete one of them each day. For the next day she hoped to complete number six, since it seemed the easiest, especially since the next day happened to be a Saturday.

When she got up the next day, she stripped down and wrapped herself in her nice, fluffy robe. She grabbed her shampoo and conditioner, so that she might properly clean herself once she was done and grabbed her clothes for the day. She ran into Draco on her way to the bathroom.

"Um…sorry." She said when she bumped into him.

"Whatever. Are you headed in there?" He asked, jerking his head towards the bathroom.

"Yeah, but I'll probably be a while, so if you want to shower or anything I think you should go now." When he looked at her oddly she clarified, "I'm taking a bath, those are supposed to be relaxing, so it'll take a while." He nodded in understanding.

"I've already showered." As he said this Hermione realized something slightly vital. One of the few things that could not be summoned or created by magic was food. If she planned to bathe in chocolate she would need to go to the kitchens to get the chocolate, but she was already in her robe and everything.

"Malfoy," she said as he turned to leave.

"What?"

"I know that this is a lot to ask, but I only just realized and I'm desperate." She semi-rambled, not making much sense to either of them.

"What Granger?"

"Would you be willing to, maybe, run down to the kitchens and ask one of the elves to send up chocolate? I need a lot of it. Like, a stone of it."

"You don't need any chocolate Granger, it'll only make you fatter." Hermione had to admit, she was a bit hurt by that. She mentally noted to add "lose weight" to her list.

"It's not to eat Malfoy, but thanks ever so for you concern." She replied sarcastically.

"Then what in the world is it for?" He asked; the natural question in the given situation.

"Never you mind, but would you please get it?" She really hoped that he would, but she secretly suspected that he probably would refuse on pure principle.

"If I fetch it," he asked, "would you tell me what it's for?" Hermione was hesitant, knowing how strange it would sound, but then realized that she did not really care what Malfoy thought of her.

"Sure, whatever."

"Then fine, I'll be right back." And with that he left for the kitchens. Hermione was stunned to say the least. Even just for curiosity she would not expect Malfoy to do such a thing. But she just accepted it and started setting things up in the bathroom.

When Malfoy got back he knocked on the bathroom door. She was still wearing her robe, so she told him that he could come in.

"Now, here is your chocolate. What's it for?"

"I'll show you." Hermione said. She performed a spell on the giant block of chocolate that he had brought, making it melt. Then she poured it into the tub and used another spell to heat it to the right, relaxing, bath temperature. Malfoy was staring at her, gobsmacked.

"You're going to bathe in it?!" He asked incredulously. Hermione merely nodded and in the back of his mind Malfoy was secretly thinking "man, that's hot".

"Oooo-kaaaayy." He said, elongating the syllables. He slowly backed out of the bathroom and left Hermione to bathe in private.

**AN: I know that this was semi-short, but I've got a great idea for the next one, so I decided to break it off here. Thanks for reading and please, please, please review. Thanks!**


	10. Getting Started

Chapter 10-getting started

Knowing that she had enough days left to do her list at a semi-leisurely pace, Hermione devised a plan. She began work on her long-term items and promised herself to do at least two each week, or at least to try to. She began writing her book, number nine on her list, and order hair-dye through a catalog so that she could fulfill number sixteen that week. The other long term ones that she began to work on were numbers fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve and ten. She went to the library and checked out a stack of books. The titles she chose were: _Animagus 101, Basic German For Beginners, Learn The Piano, Crime And Punishment, Don Quixote and Pride And Prejudice._ She planned to learn to be an animagus, speak German and play piano. The other three books were to get started on her list of classics to read before she died.

All of this only gave her a start on fourteen through twelve and ten. In order to start work on number fifteen she needed to speak to Draco Malfoy.

"What do you want Granger?" He sneared when she tapped him on the shoulder while he was reading in the Heads' common room.

"I was wondering if we could begin to talk about the winter dance?"

"What about it? It's formal; winter not Christmas, until ten for young and one for older. That sounds all figured out to me." Hermione sighed, this was going to be a bit more difficult than she had thought.

"Yes, I remember that, but I had a new idea that I wanted to put past you."

"Well go on then, talk."

"I was thinking that maybe, instead of it just being a boring dance with formal attire, why not make it a masked ball?" She hurried to explain upon seeing Malfoy's facial expression. "The students would be allowed to wear whatever formal attire they wanted, but they would have to wear a mask that hid their identities and dye their hair to hide that as well. For the younger students they would remove their masks at nine thirty, giving them an hour of knowing who's who, and for the older students they would remove their masks at midnight and have an hour of knowing who's who." She had thought up the hair dye thing on the spot, realizing that Malfoy would be recognizable by his hair alone. That meant that she could save her hair dye for the ball and do a different number on her list that week.

"Are you serious?" He asked her, looking nervous about the idea, probably dreading dying his hair.

"Yes, I like the idea. Please agree to it." She did not know why she said please, probably her sub-conscience getting a start on number nineteen: befriend somebody you don't like.

"Fine, but you have to talk to the prefects about it, it's your idea." Hermione nearly exploded with glee. One more thing that would be checked off of her list.

Hermione's big number that she checked off that week was number five: Stay up all night to watch the sun set, look at the stars and watch the sun rise.

She had had late prefect meetings most days, arranging the ball, so she had to put it off until Friday, but she did it. She went up to the Astronomy Tower early enough to get to watch the sun set and spent the whole night looking at the stars. She found various constellations, including her favorite one, Orion's Belt. She then watched the sun rise in the early hours of the morning before heading down to her dorm to get dressed for the day.

Draco had seen Hermione rush off after the last class of the day, seeming like she had somewhere to be. He went back to the dorms before dinner, but she was not there. He spent the evening in the dorms after dinner as well, but she never showed up. She was not in her room and her friends had already asked him if he knew where she was, so she obviously was not with them. He fell asleep on the couch, waking much too early.

He turned his head towards the portrait hole when he heard the sound that had woken him up. Hermione was walking in, still dressed in the same clothes as the day before.

"Who did you pull an all-nighter with Granger?" Draco asked, curious as to what the goody-goody had been doing out late.

"No one, I was just watching the sun and stars. What are you doing down here?" Again, she was not sure why she told him the truth, but she did. "It's a Saturday, shouldn't you be sleeping in?"

"I fell asleep down here last night, so you woke me up when you came in." He did not saying it in an accusatory tone, just an observational one.

"I'm sorry." Hermione half-whispered. "Excuse me." She rushed up to her room, changed quickly, grabbed her three finished novels and headed out to the library.

"Where are you going now?" Draco said before she could leave.

"Library, I need to return these books and check out a few more."

"What's with the new book choices and sudden desire to read like a mad woman?"

"They're classics." Hermione explained. "They are books that everyone should read in their lifetime. I'm just getting a head start."

This reply hit Draco like a slap in the face. It reminded him that the girl before him was dying and knew it. He felt a bit bad about being so nosey, but not that bad. "Knowing you, you will have read all the classics in a matter of weeks and will have nothing left for the rest of your lifetime." Hermione's face fell, thinking about her lack of a 'rest of your lifetime'. Draco noticed her change in facial expression and mentally slapped himself in the forehead.

Draco had started acting a bit kinder to Hermione over the past few days. He felt bad that she was dying; even more so since she had obviously not told anyone about it. Hermione seemed suspicious about his behavior, but since befriending the enemy was on her list, she did not complain too much, he was just making it that much easier.

When the next Hogsmead weekend came, the ball had already been announced and girls were excited to buy their dresses. Hermione went to a little known dress shop to find the perfect gown. It was a cream, ivory color. It had a strapless scalloped neckline and a ball gown silhouette. It also has a chapel train and a dropping waistline. The fabric used in the gown was duchesse silk and it felt beautiful to Hermione when she put it on. The mask that she bought to go with it was also cream, but it had swirls of red that would match her hair once she dyed it. It was a small mask that barely covered her cheeks and came just down to cover the end of her nose. It was beautiful and charmed so that it would stay in place until she removed it. She did not purchase any shoes. She wanted to complete the Cinderella-style image that she was creating, so she made herself a pair of shoes. She transfigured a glass into shoes. The shoes were, or course, made of glass, but they had special spells on them to keep them from breaking and also to make them comfortable to wear. She thought the overall effect was quite nice.

When she had finished that, she decided that the ball was the perfect excuse to check off another or her items. She went to a special beauty shop.

"Hello miss" the shopkeeper greeted her. "What can I do for you today?"

"I would like to have my ears pierced."

"Excellent. Just select the earrings that you wish to have in and I will do it for you in a jiffy. And special, just for lovely ladies like yourself, the piercing is free, you only have to pay for the earrings."

Hermione selected a pair of long, dangly earrings that were made of glass, like her shoes, and were rather simple. After getting her ears pierced, she decided that her outfit needed two last finishing touches. True, it was not a costume ball, but she did not want to be herself all the same. She bought a few more glasses to transfigure her necklace and tiara. The necklace was also simple, a long chain with a hollow glass heart on the end. The tiara, to fit with the theme, was simple, made of clear and red glass. It was styled with swirl patterns similar to her mask and at the end of each swirl was a small red dot of glass, giving the piece color. It was absolutely stunning and Hermione could not wait for the ball.

**AN: Thanks and please review!**


	11. The Masked Ball

Chapter 11-the masked ball

**AN- Please read, enjoy and review!**

The week before the ball was filled with much excitement. Hermione arranged it so that a special spell would be put on the hall until the appropriate time. No names would be able to be uttered, that way people couldn't tell who they are nor could they ask who someone else was. Hermione spent most of her time with Ginny and Luna, talking about the ball. No one went with dates, since the whole point was to not know who was who.

"I swear, as soon as we are allowed to tell who we are I will come find you so that you can see my dress." Hermione promised Ginny.

"Yeah, me too. I'm so excited, I love my dress. This was a great idea!" Ginny gushed, grinning from ear to ear with excitement.

"Thanks, I'm just glad that Malfoy agreed to it. I'm really looking forward to it too!" Hermione told her.

"I bet these masks will confuse the wiffborners that usually attack people at balls." Luna observed in her usual, lofty voice. Hermione and Ginny merely smiled and nodded slightly, used to Luna's odd ideas by then.

"Granger!" Draco shouted up toward her room, knowing that she couldn't come out, or else he would see what she was wearing and ruin it all.

"Yes?" She asked through her door.

"I'm just letting you know that I'm heading down to the Ball. You should head out soon if you don't want to be late!" He turned to leave, but not before he heard her say 'Thanks! Bye!' through the door.

Draco was not wearing traditional dress robes. He had on black pants which he wore with an ivory suit jacket and a shiny gold tie. The suit was obviously made of expensive fabrics and matched with his jet black hair very nicely. He had even gone so far, for the sake of his identity remaining hidden, as to charm his eyes to be a clear, crystal blue. The mask he was wearing was cream with black and blue accents and designs. He made his way down to the great hall.

Hermione finally finished bunching her soft, red ringlets on top of her head in a rather nice messy bun type bundle and left her room. She was careful not to trip on her long dress.

Hermione made sure her mask was firmly in place before leaving the Heads' Dorm. She began walking down to the entrance hall. Draco had been right, she was going to get there about three minutes after seven, officially late to the masked ball.

When she opened the door, in finally occurred to Hermione that she was setting herself up to attract even more attention then she had planned. By arriving late, everyone was seated at one of the many tables set around the dance floor, listening to the Headmaster's speech. Every pair of eyes in the room turned to look at her. The girls looked on with envy, the boys with desire and awe.

"I see we have a late comer." Headmaster McGonagall said, noticing Hermione's arrival, but not knowing who she was. "Please hurry to take a seat, I am almost finished." Hermione rushed to the nearest seat, much to the delight of the boys sitting at that table. After McGonagall finished her speech, the music started and several boys approached her.

"Hello" one of the ones closest to her said. "Want to dance?" Nervous about being surrounded by boys she did not know, Hermione declined all offers and hurried off to get a glass of punch.

"Well, you certainly fought off those boys well." A soft, almost whispering voice said off to her left. She turned. Leaning against the wall about three feet away was a boy. He was elegantly dressed and he seemed sure of himself. He had not been in the on slot of boys who ambushed her, so she already was inclined to like him over all the rest.

"Thanks." She said, equally quietly.

"I assure you, I can dance far better than any of them, having been taught as a young child. I would not embarrass you." The boy observed.

"I'm sure you would not, but that is neither here nor there." Hermione replied, unsure if the boy was asking her to dance or not.

"Seeing as how we happen to match tonight," the boy continued, indicating their similar hues of cream, "it would be a shame if we did not dance together, at least once." He smiled and winked.

"A shame indeed." Hermione responded, sure this time that he was going to ask her to dance. He did not ask her, not in so many words. He merely held out his hand, jerking his head in the direction of the dance floor. A waltz like song was on.

"I don't know how to waltz I'm afraid." She admitted sheepishly, hating to admit inadequacy at anything. He continued to hold his hand out to her, smiling to show that it was ok. "Well" she continued, "if you insist." She placed her glass down and took his hand.

He was an excellent dancer. It did not matter that she did not know the dance, he lead so well that she could easily follow along. Soon more people were watching them dance than dancing themselves. They were a blur of cream, black, red and blue, cream being the main color. They complimented each other so nicely that anyone who saw them simply _had_ to stop to watch. When the song ended everyone clapped for them awkwardly. Hermione blushed and walked off the dance floor with the mystery man.

"I need to be able to address you." She decided. "We will have to make up names for each other." He nodded in approval.

"I will call you Emily." He told her. She smiled, liking the name.

"And you shall be Damien." She told him, unaware of how close that was to his actual name.

"I like it." He said, smiling. "Well, Emily, would you like to go sit down? We could get to know each other a bit better." Hermione gladly accepted. They sat at a table in the corner where no one would bug them. "So, mystery woman, what is your favorite color?" He said it with such a serious face and serious tone that Hermione burst out laughing when she heard the question. He smiled.

"Well, I'd have to say purple. You?"

"Brown, but don't tell." He whispered. Hermione laughed.

"I couldn't if I wanted to, I don't know your name."

"But you will."

"Well, in the meantime, what would you do if you could do anything?"

He seemed to really think about it for a minute. "I would erase my past and start afresh." This time, Hermione did not laugh.

"Why? What do you hate so much about your past?" He seemed to hesitate, unsure how much to reveal. "You can tell me" Hermione assured him. "I won't tell anyone, even after I know who you are." That seemed to decide him.

"A lot of things I guess. There are several things that I wish that I could forget, and a few that I wish other people could forget about me." He paused, thought it over, and continued. "I did not have a good childhood, and I wish that I could erase the bad memories from then. I ended up being forced into the wrong side during the war, and I would love for people to forget about that and not judge me by what I had very little control over. And lastly, I was raised with very strict beliefs and often wish that I could just forget all the lessons that have been inscribed into my mind."

"You kind of sound like a guy I know. We're not close, so I don't know for sure if he feels this way, but I often feel bad for him because of similar reasons. You never know, maybe you're him." She smiled at the end, to show that she didn't think that it would be a bad thing.

"What about you?" He said, changing the subject. "What would you do if you could do anything?" Hermione took a minute to think it over.

"I would get back the year that the war took from me." He looked confused, so she elaborated. "Due to the way that the school was being run, I did not attend school for sixth year, and I wish that I could have that year back. The year was spent fighting the war and I wish that I could have spent it at school, learning, getting to know more people, all sorts of stuff. I am finally realizing how short life really is, and I just wish that I could have that year back again to spend it differently." He seemed to understand much better. Suddenly, the dark sky of a ceiling above them showed them that it had begun to rain. Those students who had ventured out of doors quickly rushed back into the hall. Hermione remembered something that was on her list of things to do.

"Do you want to go outside?" She asked him.

"Why? It just started raining?"

"That's why. I've never danced in the rain. I want to. Please come with me!" She stood up and held out a hand to him. He took it, still looking nervous, and followed her out of the hall. Once they were outside, a wave of her wand and they were surrounded by music. Hermione kicked off her shoes. For one, her heels would simply sink into the grass. Also, her list said she wanted to dance barefoot in the rain. Her mystery man followed suit.

"May I have this dance?" He asked her, bowing at the waist and extending a hand towards her formally. The music was light and fun, no slow dancing necessary.

"Of course!" She said, taking his offered hand. They danced around, simply having fun, while the rain poured down on them.

"This is actually really fun." He observed. "I can't believe that I've never done this before!" He laughed, causing Hermione to begin to laugh too. By the time they had managed to stop laughing, they decided that it was time to head back inside. They grabbed their shoes and walked back into the castle. Once inside they used a drying spell on themselves and slipped their shoes back on.

"Those are lovely shoes." He told her as she put her glass shoes back on. "Where in the world did you get them?" She blushed.

"I actually made them, I transfigured them." He looked mildly surprised.

"A smart girl I see." He said. When they reentered the ball they noticed something different. They had left at around eight fifty, so naturally, after spending nearly an hour out there, the younger students had removed their masks already. There were only about ten minutes left before the younger students had to leave.

"You're not a younger student are you?" He asked nervously, realizing how little he really knew about her.

"No" she said with a wide smile. After the younger students left and it was only fifth, sixth and seventh years, there was much more space to spread out. They had two hours left before their revealing, three until the end of the ball.

"I'm going to get something to drink" she told him. "I'm really thirsty.

"I'm going to sit down, feel free to join me again once you have your drink." He smiled a sly smile at her before going over to their previous table.

When she was at the drink table a boy approached her. He made it look like he was coming over for a drink, but Hermione could see a full cup of punch sitting on the table in front of the chair that he had so recently vacated.

"Hello" he said. "You certainly are a vision tonight."

"Thanks" she muttered, made a bit uncomfortable by their close proximity.

"A girl as lovely as yourself should never be left alone. Why don't we go somewhere a bit more private?" It was half a question, have a statement of what he thought they were, for sure, going to do. Hermione looked him over, trying to find features that she recognized. He had blonde hair, which meant that he was not naturally blonde, and he had blue eyes, which were probably his natural color. She did not see anything familiar in his face or apparel.

"I don't think so." She said politely. "But thank you for the offer." She picked up her full glass of punch and tried to walk around him to get to her table.

"Oh, but I insist." He told her, latching one hand onto her wrist and pulling her in the direction of the doors.

"No!" She said it more forcefully this time, trying to show that she wasn't weak. He did not seem inclined to release her any time soon and for some reason this made her very mad, maybe more so than the situation warranted. She took the hand that he was not pulling and slammed it hard into the side of his face that was turned towards her.

"Bloody hell!" He shouted, dropping her wrist. She quickly rushed away, the extreme anger and terror leaving her almost as soon as it had appeared. When she reached the table her mystery man was on his feet, a worried look in his eyes.

"I'm fine" she told him, sitting down. He sat back down and they were silent for a while, neither needing to talk, but still enjoying the other's company.

"Um…excuse me miss." Hermione heard this whisper and turned to see a handsome boy looking shyly at her.

"Yes?" She asked kindly.

"I was just wondering if you would like to dance with me?" He seemed like a sweet guy, and she knew him almost as well as she knew her mystery man, Hermione seriously considered the offer.

"Sure!" She told him with real enthusiasm. "I'll be right back." She told her mystery man. "Feel free to dance with someone; I'm not going to hog you all night." She smiled warmly at him before disappearing through the crowd with her new dance partner.

**AN: Please read and review to let me know what you think. Thanks!**


	12. The Revealing

Chapter 12-the revealing.

Hermione spent much of the time remaining until midnight dancing. It seemed that boys did not mind that she was not the best dancer, seeing as how she was so pretty. She danced with many different guys, but none of them ever measured up to her mystery man Damien. All of the boys were wearing boring traditional robes. Damien stood out, with his beautiful combination of black and ivory, the overall effect was breathtaking. Especially with his shiny black hair that hung loose, just covering the tips of his ears. Whenever she danced with him, which was fairly often, she studied his features, trying to figure out who he was. He was very muscular, well toned, indicating a possible sports player, making her think that he was probably a quidditch player. He had a fine face, defined chin and oval shaped eyes. His lips were slightly pink in color, drawing the observers attention. The accent color of his mask nearly perfectly matched his eyes, making Hermione wonder if maybe he'd charmed his eyes to match it so perfectly.

When there was only about half an hour left until the revealing, Hermione and Damien broke off dancing to sit and have a breather. "Are you nervous?" Hermione asked. He looked confused. "About revealing who you really are." She clarified.

"No." He said pompously, even though his face gave him away. "I don't know of a single girl in this school that would be unhappy to find out that they had spent the whole evening with me." Hermione laughed.

"I bet you just think that. I can't think of a single guy in this school that _every single_ girl likes. Not one. There is always a group of some sort that dislikes them." Damien just shrugged it off. They talked about trivial things for the next twenty minutes, much like they had in the beginning. They asked about favorite bands, animals and places to visit. They even shared childhood secrets, such as the time when Hermione ate a whole jar of cookies, but then lied to her mother saying they fell and that their cat had eaten them. Or the time when Damien snuck down to the kitchens to hide from his parents, spent two days there being cared for by the house elves before going to his front door and saying that he had been kidnapped but had just escaped.

When it finally came time to reveal who everyone was, Hermione begged Damien to go first. People were taking off masks all around them, undying their hair to show who they really were. Hermione could see Dean Thomas and the Patil sisters out of the corners of her eyes. Damien removed his mask, but with the dyed hair and changed eyes, it did not enhance Hermione's ability to recognize him at all. First he changed his eyes back to their natural steely-grey. Hermione's memory sparked, but the black hair still had her stumped. Damien finally changed his hair to its natural color, revealing himself to be the one, the only…

"Oh my God." Hermione whispered, shocked.

"What is it?" Draco Malfoy asked, looking slightly confused. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not the type of person you would ever talk to in any other situation. We don't get along." Hermione tried to explain, but all Draco wanted to do was figure out who she was. While she'd been talking he'd taken off her mask, but she still had to undo the magic.

"No!" Hermione grabbed her mask back from Draco and turned to leave. She turned back around when she felt a hand on her arm. "Let me go." Draco shook his head.

"You can't just leave without letting me know who you are. That's not fair and I won't have it." His eyes were cold and he finally looked like the Draco she was used to seeing.

"Now that sounds a bit more like the Malfoy I know." Hermione said in a whisper, her voice a mixture of sadness and anger. She had, as stupid as she knew it was, been secretly wishing that the Damien she had known throughout the ball was the real Malfoy showing through. Unfortunately she was forced to conclude that the way Malfoy had acted the past few hours had been a fluke, an accident, a onetime occurrence.

Without saying another word Hermione yanked her arm from Draco's grip and marched out of the hall and back up to her dorm. The ball was not technically over for another twenty minutes, but Hermione just wanted to take a long shower and go to bed. This plan was delayed when, after changing into pajamas, she ran into Ginny on her way to the bathroom.

"Hey," Ginny began, sounding a bit miffed. "You never came to show me your dress." Hermione frowned, confused.

"Did I say that I would?" Now it was Ginny's turn to frown, since it hadn't been that long since they had made the promises to find each other.

"Yes," Ginny explained. "We promised each other that as soon as we were able to we would find the other and show our dresses. This was not that long ago, how could you have already forgotten?" Hermione's frown deepened as she remembered that memory loss was one of the symptoms of Fluxi Magus. She surely had that disease; memory loss was not a symptom of Veneficus Flabra.

"I'm sorry," Hermione told Ginny. "I got a bit distracted. I'll put it on for you as soon as I'm done with my shower." She finally looked at the dress that Ginny was wearing. "Oh my gosh Ginny," Hermione exclaimed. "It's stunning." The dress was a rich, gorgeous red. It had off-the-shoulder straps and was in a mermaid style, meaning it was tight fitting until mid-thigh where it flared out in a full skirt. It would never have suited Ginny with red hair, but with her hair dyed blonde it was quite spectacular.

"Thanks." Ginny said with a huge grin engulfing her face. "I absolutely love it. It was great to get to wear red for once. I'll only ever be able to re-wear it if I dye my hair, but still, it is fantastic." They said they good-byes and Hermione went to take her shower. When Hermione finally shows her dress to Ginny, with the mask and hair and jewelry Ginny loves it.

"You look fantastic!" She gushed. "So it was you that was dancing with that hot guy wearing a nearly perfectly matching outfit?" Hermione nodded. "You two looked great together, and he can really dance!" Hermione smiled, remembering. "So who was it, when the unmasking came about?" Hermione blanched.

"Well, we weren't near each other when the unmasking happened and I didn't go looking for him, so I don't know." She lied. She couldn't help it, she didn't want to admit that the hot, great dancing, sweet talking, nice guy that she had spent her time with was in fact…she couldn't even think it. She was in too much shock.

After gushing for about half an hour, the two girls finally went to bed. Hermione, of course, had dreams about Damien. Not Draco. To her they were two completely different people that just happened to reside in the same body.

In the Slytherin dorms, Draco Malfoy was thinking about Emily. Who was she? Why did she think he wouldn't like knowing who she was? How could he figure it out? The last question was what plagued him most. He _had_ to know who she was, that wasn't in question. The question was merely how to do it.

This problem would not be solved for a few days. In the meantime, it was Saturday morning and, much like after the Halloween dance, movement was scarce. Hermione, having gone to bed earlier than most, got up that morning while everyone was still in bed. She got dressed in warm clothes and went for a walk in the snow. It was beautiful outside. Hermione watched her feet as they glided through the untouched snow.

"Ooof." Hermione stumbled backwards, having crashed into something while she was watching her feet.

"Watch where you're going Granger." Hermione knew who it was instantaneously. She really didn't want to talk to Malfoy right then, not with having to deal with the fact that he was her sweet, funny Damien.

"Out of my way Malfoy." She turned her attention back to her feet and tried to keep walking in the direction she had been going.

"Ooh." Draco said, following her. "Feisty this morning aren't you? Did you have a bad time at the dance?" Hermione scowled at him.

"I had a fantastic time. Now, if you'll excuse me…" She didn't get to finish.

"I bet the dance proved something to you, didn't it?" Malfoy interrupted her. "You were all dressed up, no one could recognize you, and yet still no one liked you. It showed you that no one could ever love you. You'll never be like that one girl last night. No one knew who she was, and yet everyone wanted to dance with her. I got to. Did you know that? Out of all the guys who asked her, she chose to spend the night dancing and talking to me." He flashed a cocky grin. "That tells me that I'm special and desirable. Unfortunately the same can't be said for you, can it?" Hermione donned a cocky grin of her own, although hers was accompanied by those same, sad eyes.

"But, might I ask, how did she respond when she found out it was you?" Malfoy palled; Hermione laughed. "Yes, it proved that you were desirable when you had a mask covering your face and different colored eyes and hair, but it also proved that you are undesirable in your true form. You can get a girl if you are disguised, but you can never keep one if you want to show your true colors." Hermione felt bad that she was being so unkind and sinking to his level of insults, but the release of tensions and anger felt too good for her to be mad at herself for very long. "Ta-ta for now." She whipped her head around, walking back up to the castle, leaving a stunned and perplexed Draco Malfoy in her wake.


	13. The Letters

**Chapter 13-the letters.  
><strong>**AN: Enjoy. Please review! :D******

Unfortunately, as nice as the release of tensions was for Hermione when she argued with Draco, over the next few days she realized that she missed the guy that she had gotten to know that evening at the dance; she missed Damien. She saw Draco everyday and they were relatively decent to each other, but she missed the connection that she had had with Damien. Since she was the brightest witch of her age, when she finally took the time to put her mind to it, she managed to figure out a way so that she could still talk to Damien without having to be Hermione, she could still be the Emily from the ball.  
><strong><br>**_**Damien,**__**  
><strong>__** I know we didn't separate on positive terms, but please read this. I addressed this letter to Damien, even though I know you are Draco. I miss Damien. He and I got along well. I would love to keep contact with the Damien; if that's alright with you. We could send letters back and forth. I can tell an owl Draco. You, since I don't want to reveal myself, can send a reply by the same owl. He'll wait for you to write a reply, whenever you find time to, and then he can return it to me, since he'll know who sent it. If this plan's alright by you, please reply in the fashion mentioned above. If not, please tell the owl to return to his sender, he'll know what to do. Thanks for reading this. **__**  
><strong>__** ~ Emily **_****

Hermione gave this letter to her owl, Henry. Her parents had bought her Henry for getting Head Girl, and he was already very attached to her. He wasn't snowy white like Harry's owl, rather he was a dark, musky brown color with hints of red and gold. She thought he was beautiful. She kept him in her room, since she had the space, so very few people recognized him as belonging to her. She hoped that by sending Malfoy this letter, he might take the bait, and allow her to indulge in thinking of him as sweet, funny, enjoyable to talk to, considerate, fun loving, and nice, and let her escape the reality of the real Draco Malfoy, even just in letter form. Although, the more that she thought about it, the more she realized that the actual Draco Malfoy had been acting quite nicely to her in private lately. Obviously he was rude in public to uphold his image and reputation, but he was pretty thoughtful, helpful, and, as odd as it was to say it about a Malfoy, he had been acting relatively nice towards her as of late. She saw no reason for the sudden change, as she had done nothing particularly nice towards him. She thought to herself, it was possible that he'd picked up that she was not doing so well. There was no way he could possibly know of the severity of her situation, but she had been sparking and forgetting things, and she did favor her other hand since her wand hand started hurting, perhaps he suspected something, since the Hermione most people knew did not forget things. It was odd that he would notice when her best friends seemed to be oblivious to it, but he did live with her. Hermione put these thoughts off for a rainy day and directed Henry to deliver the letter with the morning post to Draco Malfoy.

For the next two days Hermione was on hinges. She wanted to know what he was going to say. Henry had yet to return, with or without a response. Hermione was beginning to make herself nervous as well as Malfoy, Harry, and Ron. One minute she would be happily humming while reading a book in the library, usually for Charms or Transfiguration, and the next minute she would toss the book away from her, heave a frustrated sigh and bang her head on the table because she could not find what she was looking for. On other occasions she would be eating in the Great Hall and suddenly she would get up and leave, telling the boys that they were chewing too damn loudly for her to stand. Harry and Ron did not think anything was wrong, they just thought that it was that time of the month, but Malfoy did. He did not remember mood swings being a symptom, but they were very un-Hermione, so he wanted to take her _Diagnose Your Own Magical Maladies_ book and look up the symptoms again, see if he just missed it.

Meanwhile, he had yet to answer the letter he'd received from Emily. He planned to reply, whether he wanted to continue correspondences or not. Eventually he sat down in his room and scribbled out a reply in his elegant, well practiced handwriting and sent it off. Hermione received this letter when Henry returned to her.****

_**Emily,**_

_**I guess we could try this; see if it works. I liked Emily, but I did not like what she became when she saw my real face. If you hate Draco, why would you want to keep talking to Damien? What are we going to talk about? We'll see if this arrangement works. If not, you can always tell me who you really are and we can work from there. Let me know.**_

_**Damien  
>(for interception's sake I'll call myself Damien)<strong>_****

Hermione read this letter twice over, feeding Henry three treats for being such a good owl as she did, before stopping to plan her reply. It was great that he had agreed to the correspondence, but if he was going to be nagging her in every letter to tell him who she was then she was going to get annoyed, fast. Still, she did miss the Damien she could confide in, joke with, and dance in the rain with. Harry was so absorbed in dating Ginny that he barely noticed her anymore and Ron was equally obsessed with Quidditch and a variety of girls along the way, so he was as ignorant as always. She needed a new best friend. Besides, number 19 on her list did say to befriend someone she did not like, and Draco Malfoy definitely counted as someone she didn't like, so befriending one side of him at least, the Damien side, was a start.

Thinking about her list reminded her that she needed to check some more items off soon if she planned to get it done in time. With this in mind, she wrote her response.  
><strong><br>**_**Damien,**__**  
><strong>__** Since you agreed to keeping in touch with me, I was wondering if you would do something else with me. I'm skipping classes on Friday. I'm sneaking down to Hogsmeade through a secret passageway I know. I have some fun things I need to do and wondered if you would come. I would look as I did at the ball, so I'm not revealing myself. You can either come as Draco or Damien, it's up to you. If you'd like to accompany me, please indicate that in your response, if not, please say so. As for your questions, I don't hate Draco, we just have issues and I'm not sure he likes me much. You have to admit, Damien was very different from the usual Draco. For your other question, we can talk about anything. What good gossip have you heard recently? What's your Heads' room look like? And, are you coming Friday? Let me know.**__**  
><strong>__** ~Emily**_****

Draco couldn't allow himself to feel regret as he read this letter from Emily. He had been hoping that this mysterious Emily and the girl he was crushing on would turn out to be one and the same girl, but the girl he liked would never ditch school. He felt just a bit less eager to find out the true identity of this mystery girl Emily now that he knew it could not possibly be the girl that he most wanted it to be.

Hermione received a reply much faster than normal. Judging by the speed, he must have written the reply as soon as he read the letter and sent the owl right back. Hermione grinned, anticipating his reaction to her request.

_**Emily,**_

_**I have to admit, your request surprised me. You just eliminated several candidates for your true identity, they wouldn't skip classes. I'd love to skip with you on Friday, sounds like fun. I'll come as Damien, so I don't have to deal with someone in Hogsmeade recognizing me and reporting me to the Headmistress. Thinking about it, Damien was very different from me, but still me. I have several bits of gossip, although that makes me sound like a girl. I'll tell you another time, when one of our conversations gets boring. Maybe you could come, as Emily, to my Heads' common room some time, so you would know what it looks like for yourself. See you Friday.**_

_**Damien**_****

Hermione read this letter over quickly, smiling brightly. She was psyched for Friday. She was going to get to check of several items from her list. She hides her letters from him in the locked drawer in her desk and wrote a quick response, just to let him know that she got his letter.

_**Damien,**__**  
><strong>__** Great! I'll see you Friday. Don't cross people out yet. I'm not the type to **__**ever**__** skip classes. I'm probably the last person anyone expects to skip, but I've never done it before and it's our last year. No response is needed, just wanted you to know that I got it. Just send my bird back. Bye!**__**  
><strong>__** ~Emily**_****

After reading this letter, Draco let out a sigh of relief. It could still be her. Emily claims to be the last person you'd ever expect to skip class. The girl he was thinking of, the one he'd liked all year, she definitely fit that category. She would be his last guess when it came to girls who would skip out on classes. Besides, he'd never expected her to bathe in chocolate, pull an all-nighter, or get fatally ill either, but that all happened.

**AN: I hope you liked it. Btw, in case you got confused like I did, the masked ball was Friday the week before winter break, so this Friday, the one with Draco, is the last day before winter break. Please review! Love you all!**


	14. The Ditch

Chapter 14-the ditch

Hermione was so incredibly excited for Friday. She could barely contain herself. She acted normally around Draco, so as not to give away the identity of Emily as being her. She wished that Draco and Damien were two different people, but she was kind of glad that they weren't, that way, even when Draco wasn't being that nice, she could remember that he was a very nice guy somewhere deep down. She was still having mood swings like crazy. If she was not a virgin she might have thought that she was pregnant. But unless she was the modern day Virgin Mary, that was not the cause.

Hermione had been trying, unsuccessfully, to use the progression of her symptoms to judge how much longer she had. Unfortunately she still had no clue. Her wand had still hurt really badly; she had taken to using her other hand more often. She was sparking all over the place; she accidentally set fire to her neighbor's robes in the Great Hall one day. She would randomly do magic when her wand was nowhere near her; she was in the middle of a shower one day when all of a sudden the bathroom was filled with alarm clocks, she'd had to find a way to vanish them quickly, the sound was infuriating. And she still had memory loss; she had walked into a third year class the week before, sat down, and opened her book before realizing that she was no longer in her third year and needed to get to her correct classroom quickly.

Draco Malfoy, though looking forward to Friday with Emily, had other things he needed to focus on. Hermione was getting worse. Her mood swings still troubled him, as well as annoying him. He was doing his best to be nice to her without being obvious. He knew that if he suddenly started acting super chummy with her then she would ask about a million questions and figure out that he knew. He was not positive of what her reaction to that would be, but he did not want to try it and find out. He did notice, however, that his niceties were being appreciated. He could tell that she was a bit more relaxed. Finding things done for her made her a little less frazzled, and she was much nicer to him as a result. He liked that she was warming up to him. He was devastated that she was dying, and he did not want her to die completely unhappy, nor did he want her to die hating him. He was a bit angry that her friends were so utterly oblivious to what was going on in her life, but he more than made up for it.

He did not plan on going home for the holiday. His hope was that she would stay too, and he might get extra time with her. She could go either of two ways. Either she wanted at least one more Christmas with her parents before she died, in which case she would go home for Christmas. Or, she wanted her parents to remember her as the vivacious, fun-loving, and energetic girl that she had been before she got sick, in which case she would remain at Hogwarts.

Both Hermione and Draco realized Thursday evening that they did not know where they were to meet up in order to go to Hogsmeade together. Luckily, Hermione realized this first and sent a letter off the 'Damien' right away, keeping it short and to the point.

_**Damien,**_  
><em><strong> FYI, meet me at 9 o'clock on the second floor, in front of the statue of the mourning lady. <strong>_  
><em><strong> ~Emily<strong>_

Now, when Friday morning dawned, they both rushed getting dressed, with the day full of fun and excitement gleaming in front of them. They hurried to the statue and by the time the clock struck nine, they had already begun making their way down the tunnel.

"Don't you think it's weird?" Draco had whisper, because the tunnel they were it magnified everything they said to three times its original volume.

"What's weird?"

"You knowing who you are spending your time with and me being clueless?" He continued before she could interrupt. "I mean, I could be spending my time with a freakish, scary, murderous stalker who will never leave me alone and will eventually turn cannibalistic and eat me up, and I would not even know the danger that I was in."

Hermione laughed. "I see two flaws with that argument. One, do you really believe that there is such a person at Hogwarts, since you know that I am a seventh year at Hogwarts, do you honestly believe that one of our fellow students is capable of that? And secondly, you can't honestly tell me that after spending an entire evening talking with me and days passing letters back and forth with me that you think I could possibly turn out to be such a person. Are you such a bad judge of character that you think I could be murderous and a cannibal. If so, I'm not so sure I want to spend my time with someone so stupid. Even Draco is smarter that you are turning out to be Damien. Maybe you should have come as him, for intelligence sake." Draco chuckled, conceding to her superior logic. It was just that not knowing was making him crazy.

When they arrived in Hogsmeade, Draco asked where to first. Both being disguised as Emily and Damien, they did not have to worry about being recognized.

"I would like to start by getting a drink. Might I recommend the Hogs Head? It is much less crowded and will probably serve us alcohol without even asking our ages." Draco agreed and they began to make their way to the pub, it being a bit out of the way, they had time to talk on their way.

"So, you mentioned in your letter that you had some things that you specifically had to do here today. Might I ask what those things are? You did promise that they would be fun." Hermione smiled a bit too evilly for Draco's liking.

"Well, the first thing is to drink alcohol. Which is what we are off to do right now." She explained. "So that checks that off the list."

"What type of list is this that we are working off of, if it includes drinking alcohol?" Draco asked curiously, unsure of what he had gotten himself into.

"Well, it is our last year at Hogwarts." She explained slowly, as if talking to a young child. "There are some things that I wish to do before going out into the real world. Things I normally do not do. I do not want to live a sheltered life, going out into the world being ignorant. I pride myself in being intelligent, and as such, I wish to accomplish a few things while still in the safe environment of school."

"Well," Draco said, absorbing what she had said, "might I inquire as to what such things you need to 'accomplish'?"

"Sure you can." Hermione replied cheerfully. "I plan on getting a tattoo and buying a few choice articles of clothing that I have never possessed."

"What types of articles of clothing are we talking about?" He said as they walked into the pub.

"No." She replied. "You will only get to find out when I try them on and you help me to decide which to purchase." She smiled at this amusing thought, imagining his reaction.

"All right, be secretive." He motioned for her to sit at the booth nearest them. "You can sit here while I go and buy us a couple of fire whiskeys." She sat and waited while he went up to the bar and ordered their drinks.

After they finished their drinks and Hermione mentally checked alcohol off her list, they went to a tattoo place.

"I like this one." Draco suggested. Hermione came over to look at it. It was a huge dragon.

"No way!" She said fervently. "Do you want me to die of pain? It would kill me to have something so big carved into me." She took a calming breath. "Besides," she told him, "I want to have it tattooed on my lower back."

"Well, how about this one?" He pointed to a moving tattoo of a wand that produced a baby dragon, vanished it, and then produced an owl, all in green and red ink on the skin.

"That's cool." Hermione observed. "I didn't know that it could be charmed to change what's there." She looked at the price. "I don't think so though. I'm not so sure it's worth the extra cost." Draco saw her hesitancy at the price.

"How about I make you a deal?" He offered. Always cautious around Draco, even when he was Damien, Hermione had to ask.

"What kind of deal?"

"I'll pay for the tattoo if you get that one on your lower back and I can get it on my upper arm." Hermione thought about it. Matching tattoos. That sounded like fun. And he was willing to pay for it. God knows that he could afford them both.

"Sure. You've got yourself a deal." She smiled and he returned it warmly.

They got the tattoos, as painful as they were, and were very happy with them. After admiring their awesome matching tattoos for a little while, Hermione led him to their last stop. Because they were taking their own sweet time with everything, slowly sipping their drinks at the Hog's Head, talking and laughing all the way, it was already two in the afternoon. But Hermione knew that it would take a while to choose the right outfit at their last stop of the day. And maybe they'd go for one more drink, and a bit to eat too, before leaving.

"Why are we here?" Draco asked. They had stopped outside of a lingerie shop.

"I told you that I had a few things to buy before we left didn't I?" Hermione asked innocently, smirking slightly. Draco guffawed.

"Yes, but you did neglect to tell me what type of clothing you needed to get. Are you telling me that you plan on having me help you decide what underwear to buy?" He was staring at her in disbelief. Had he known that Emily was actually Hermione he would have been even more shocked.

"Yes, now hurry up. This may take a while." Hilariously enough, Hermione had him help her select a few different pairs of thongs and lacy bras to try on before heading back to the dressing room area. Hermione had Draco sit in the waiting area while she went into a stall to try her things on.

She came out in her first set, purple with white polka-dots and white lace.

"I didn't know you had your belly-button pierced!" Draco exclaimed.

"I come out dressed in only a bra and thong and you notice my belly-button piercing?" She asked. Draco laughed and looked at her outfit. Hermione blushed a bit.

"Well Emily, I must say, you look adorable. I now know why you say that purple is your favorite color."

"Thank you. And just so you know, I got my belly-button pierced on a whim when shopping for my masked ball dress. I got my ears pierced to go with my outfit, and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. Now, I have to go try on some others."

They spend about an hour in the shop, goofing off and deliberating between sets of underwear. They finally settled on her getting the purple one with the white. It was very nice. Hermione purchased her items and they went to the Three Broomsticks for drinks and a late Brunch slash early dinner.

By the time they made it back to the passageway that they had gone through, it was already four thirty. It was five o'clock before Hermione walked into the common room she shared with Draco, having had to hang around in the prefects' bathroom since Draco had gone back to the room first.

"Hello Malfoy." She said as she entered. "You weren't in classes today." She said, using her knowledge of his ditching to her advantage, making it seem like she had been in classes all day.

"No, I had somewhere more important to be." He said nonchalantly.

"Oh," Hermione replied, making her way up to her room, "I hope that you had fun, where ever you were." Draco smiled, remembering, before quickly wiping the smile off of his face, sneering at her, and replying.

"Yeah, but probably not as much fun as you have being in class, you know-it-all. You wouldn't ditch to save your life. You're such a goody-goody." Hermione smiled, facing away so that he couldn't see. His statement and word choice amused her for two reasons. For one, she had ditched, with him. And secondly, she ditched because she couldn't save her life. She would definitely do it to save her life.

"Whatever you say Draco, but I wouldn't be so sure." She said softly, closing her door behind her. 


	15. Holiday Gossip

Chapter 15- holiday gossip

**AN: I'll just let you read, thanks!**

Would you be able to handle celebrating Christmas with your parents, knowing that it was your last, and yet pretending that everything was all right so that they would not worry? Hermione was not so sure that she could. She was seriously debating spending her last Christmas at Hogwarts. The boys were going to the Burrow, but Hermione was sure she could have fun on her own. Plus, it would give her a chance to work on her list. She was only about a quarter of the way through her book, she had only read about ten classics, she had not yet mastered the animagus charm, her German and her piano skills were both only mediocre, and she had other items that she had yet to even start.

With all the pro's she could come up with for staying, and so few for going, Hermione decided to remain at Hogwarts over the Holidays. She could not face her parents. Besides, she would not be lying when she told them that she had a lot to do. She sent the letter off tho her parents, accompanied by her presents to them. She'd really splurged, knowing they were her last.

Draco saw that Hermione intended to stay. He also observed that the Weasel and Scar-head did not plan to stay. This made him happy, though he was not sure why. He rationalized it that he would not have to deal with their oblivious state, he would be able to watch over the poor dying girl from a distance without their interference. That was a good enough rationale for him.

"Wow Granger," Draco said on the third day of Christmas break, after having come into their common room to see her drowned by books. "What did you do, rob a library?" He chuckled at his own joke. "What in the world could you need all those books for? We are on vacation, in case you forgot." Hermione did not even look up at him, she barely heard him; she was too absorbed in her novel. "Did you hear me Granger?" Draco asked, not liking being ignored. "Hermione." Saying her full name worked just as he had known it would. Her head popped up.

"Did you just call me Hermione?" She asked, looking up from her book in surprise.

"Only because I knew it would get you to pay attention to me." He smirked. "Now, I asked you why you needed so many books for vacation."

"Well," Hermione began, exasperated with Malfoy and eager to get back to her book. "Some people find reading fun, and so, when they have vacations like this they like to do some light reading to pass the time." Malfoy laughed.

"I would hardly call this 'light reading', it looks like you stole the library and moved it to our dorm." Hermione gave a little chuckle.

"Well, I have a lot of books that I want to get through, some classics." Draco remembered their previous conversation about 'books to read before you die'. She was really determined to get all of these books read before her expiration date.

"Well have fun with that." Draco said, not unkindly. "I'm off to go for a fly. I'll probably see you later." He grabbed his broom, which is what he'd gone to the dorm for in the first place, and headed for the door.

"Have fun, and yeah, I'm sure we'll see each other." Hermione watched him leave, thinking about how very civil and _nice_ he was being, it was just weird.

They continued to act nicely to each other, but even with Malfoy being so great, Hermione still missed Damien, so she sent him a letter.

_**Damien,**_

_**Room of Requirements? 7pm? Dinner and talk? Let me know.**_

_**~Emily**_

Excited to be able to narrow the pool of possible girls, Draco accepted. He now knew that she was not any of the girls who had gone home for the Holidays. He was also excited to get to talk to her again; he missed getting to be Damien sometimes. Besides, he had a question to ask her.

"Hey stranger." Draco turned his head as he walked into the room of requirements, trying to locate the voice. He saw Emily, she looked amazing.

"What's the occasion?" He asked. She was wearing a beautiful strapless dress. It fell to just above her knees and was a deep blue. It was tight until the hips, where it sort of puffed, like a ball gown except shorter.

"You." She smilled. "I fell in love with the dress when I bought my dress for the masked ball, so I bought it, figuring I could always find some excuse to wear it, and now I did." She laughed softly, Draco chuckled too.

"Well, you look stunning." She blushed. "And the dinner looks delicious. Did you get the elves to bring it up?" She nodded as they headed over to the little table for two that was set up with food.

"Yeah, I hope you like what I chose, I picked foods that most people like." Draco nodded, indicating that she'd made good choices. They sat down and began to eat. "So, having a good holiday so far?" he asked.

"Yeah, been doing some reading. You?" Draco laughed.

"I've not been doing any reading, but Hermione has, she's the head girl and I share a dorm with her, I found her the other day with a huge stack of books she's reading." He smirked at the memory. "But I'm having a good break. Though I was wondering if I could ask you a question?" Hermione nodded, encouraging him to ask his question. "I was wondering if you would like to celebrate Christmas with me, if you don't already have plans with friends. I stayed at Hogwarts for complicate reasons, but I'd still like to celebrate with someone I like. What do you think?"

Hermione thought it over, going over the situation in her mind and looking for any potential disasters. Not finding any she said "sure". He smiled. "I also stayed for complicated reasons, and my friends did not, so I'd love to spend Christmas with you. We could have a tree with decorations and everything in here if we wanted, and we could sleep over in hear for Christmas Eve night to Christmas Day. It would be fun!" They started planning what they would need and how to get it. Eventually they left the table and moved to the couches. Once they had exhausted that topic, Hermione reminded Draco of something he had once told her in a letter.

"Hey Damien," She started, he looked up at her curiously. "Do you remember when I asked you in one of my letters if you had any good gossip?" He nodded and she continued, "you said you did have some gossip, though admitting that that made you sound a bit feminine, and said that if one of our conversations ever got boring you would tell me?" He nodded again. "Well I think that this conversation is boring, so why don't you tell me now?!" She smiled as she said it, sitting up a bit straighter and looking at him expectantly. He sighed.

"Fine, but I'm warning you now, it's not a particularly pleasant bit of gossip and you cannot tell a soul, I'm not even supposed to know." Hermione agreed to these terms, a bit nervous about what gossip could be so serious. "You know Hermione Granger right, Head Girl, little miss know-it-all Gryffindor?" Hermione nodded, shocked that his serious, non-pleasant gossip had to do with her. "Well, I happen to know that she is sick and dying because of some incurable disease." Hermione gasped in disbelief, how in the world could he know? "I know, shocking, but even more shocking is that she hasn't told Potter nor Weasel yet. I don't know why, it might be one of those suffer in silence things, but she hasn't told anyone. I don't think she has even told her parents, so this is top secret." Hermione could barely find words. How did he know so much? This was not possible!

"Wha-what else do you know?" She stuttered.

"About Hermione? Only that she must have some sort of bucket list because so far she's bathed in chocolate and read a billion classics that she says are 'must reads' before you die, which for her is soon-ish." He looked kind of sad. "It's not very happy gossip is it though. I feel bad for her, so I'm even trying to be nicer to her. It's sort of working too."

Hermione could not believe her ears. Not only did he know about her illness, but that was the reason he had been acting nice to her. She had been thinking that maybe Damien was showing a bit more in Malfoy, but she was wrong. "I forgot about something." She said suddenly, standing up. "I promised a friend of mine that I would help her with an essay so that she can spend the rest of the Holidays relaxing, I forgot that I'd scheduled that for 9:30pm tonight when I asked you to come here. If I don't leave now I'll be late. She would never forgive me. I'm so sorry." Draco looked skeptical, but he let her go, wondering why hearing about Hermione got her so upset.

When Hermione got back to her dorm room she fell face first onto her bed without taking any of her clothing off, not even her shoes. She needed a plan. How in the world was she going to confront Malfoy, something had to be said. Something _had _to be done!

**AN: Please review!**


	16. Confrontation and Shopping

Chapter 16-confrontation and shopping

**AN: Please read and review!**

Hermione paced around her room thinking. Something had to be said or done. She could not just pretend that she didn't know that he knew. She knew he knew, and he needed to know that she knew that he knew that she's dying. Wow, Hermione was confusing herself. She sat down on the edge of her bed, thinking.

She still could not decide whether she was angry or not at Malfoy. Well, in truth she was mad at him. She just was not sure yet how mad. She didn't think that it was a horrible deed, him telling Emily, or even being nice to her because he knew she was dying. But not telling her that he knew made her a bit upset and she was positive illness would make her even more angry. But for the most part she was shocked. Hermione smiled. She was kind of pleased. He'd known she was dying so he'd acted nicer. That was considerate, something she had previously thought impossible for him. Maybe there was still hope for Damien.

Hermione devised a plan to confront Draco Malfoy. It was not the most creative plan, nor was it the most subtle way to approach the problem, but Hermione was confident that it would get the job done. She went to bed, mentally preparing herself for the inevitable events that would come with the rising of the sun.

"Good morning Granger. I see that you are up early. I am normally able to slip out and down to the kitchens before you get up and come down." Hermione was surprised to see Malfoy sitting on the couch of their common room the next morning.

"I always thought that you were still sleeping when I came down every morning and found the room empty." Hermione said in disbelief. "Are you really trying to tell me that you've been up and gone already every morning?" Draco chuckled, smiling a genuine smile.

"Yes, sorry to burst your bubble Granger, but I am a bit of a morning person sometimes." At that Hermione smiled too.

"Well," thinking that there was no time like the present, "I needed to talk to you anyways, if you have a minute." Draco stayed sat and nodded to indicate that she could go on. Hermione took a seat in a chair opposite him. "Well, there is something that I think you need to know, since we live together and see each other every day." Draco's eyes went wide and Hermione smiled, knowing what he thought she was trying to tell him.

"I think I already know, if that makes it any easier." She shook her head.

"You could not possibly know, there is no way." She knew what it sounded like, that was her plan. It was then Draco's turn to shake his head.

"I do. You left your _Diagnose Your Own Magical Maladies_ book open when you went outside one time. I saw it and had to see what you were looking up. It was then that I realized that those were all symptoms that you had and that you must have one of the diseases listed there." Hermione nodded, her plan had worked perfectly.

"Oh, I didn't know that that was how you knew. Thanks for telling me. But I already know that you know that. That's what I was trying to tell you." He looked confused.

"What were you trying to tell me?" Hermione sighed.

""I found out that you know that I am ill. I was trying to tell you that I know you know I'm sick." She sighed again. "Did that make any more sense?" He nodded.

"How did you find out?" He asked. "That I knew."

"Well," Hermione said, spinning a web of lies. "For one, you've been acting a lot nicer to me lately. Secondly, you look kind of mad at yourself whenever you make a comment that would have been inappropriate to say to a dying person. And lastly, I heard from a friend, who heard from her friend, who heard a girl muttering about it to herself while in the loo." Draco looked a little dazed, but generally on the same page as Hermione.

"Who was the girl in the loo?" He obviously deduced that that girl was the Emily of the story.

"I would tell you if I could, but the sources don't matter to girls, so we never bother to remember. I haven't got a clue." He looked a little disappointed but seemed to accept her explanation.

"Well since you know that I know," Draco said, "I would be willing to help you with the things you have left of what I must assume is some sort of list that you want to do before…" an awkward pause filled the air, "I'm not sure what type of things are on your list, but I'm sure I could help." Hermione had to make a split second decision. Either she could be angry at him and reject his niceties, or she could suck it up and finally accept some help. She opted for the latter, thankfully.

"Help would be great. I want to become an animagus, write a book, learn German, and learn to play the piano, among others. Can you help with any of those?" Draco smiled and they began to make plans on when to do different things. Hermione smiled, thinking about how similar Draco was becoming to Damien, even if it was just because he knew she was dying.

"Why are you smiling at me?" Draco asked sharply, reminding her that he was still Malfoy.

"Nothing, I was just thinking of something and happened to smile while I was looking at you." He turned back to their list and schedule.

While Malfoy had been helping Hermione become an animagus and learn to play piano and learn to speak German, Damien was eagerly awaiting Christmas Eve. It occurred to him that he should probably buy Emily a present, or presents. But what should he get her? He never really bought Christmas presents. Mostly his parents bought it and put his name on it. He decided that Hermione could stand to give back for all that he was helping her to do.

"Hey Granger!" Hermione's head whipped around. She'd been reading Sherlock Holmes. She looked at Malfoy expectantly. "Since I've been helping you this week with all these different things that you want to do, would you mind helping me with something that I need to do before Christmas eve?" Hermione looked skeptical.

"What is it that you need to do?" He smiled.

"I have a female friend that I am going to be spending Christmas eve and day with and I suddenly realized that it would probably be nice if I had a present for her." Hermione's eyes went wide. She would have to get him a gift too then. "I was planning on sneaking down to Hogsmeade to look for something for her, but then I realized that I have no idea what I would buy for her. And since I've been helping you and you are a girl and would know, I figured you would know what a girl your age would like." Hermione agreed to go with him, planning on going off on her own at one point to buy a gift for Damien. They planned to go the next day. It was the twenty second, so the next day would be the day before Christmas Eve, perfect timing.

"Granger!" Hermione woke to the sweet sound of Draco's voice, shouting from the other side of her door. "If you are not dressed and downstairs in ten minutes I'm coming in there!" Hermione scrambled from some clothing and her purse with all her money in it. She got her coat, scarf, and other things necessary for walking around in the snow. She then did her hair and make-up. Finally she grabbed some boots and went down to the common room to meet up with early-bird Draco.

"I'm here, I'm here." She said as she rushed down the stairs. He was sitting on the couch, reading the latest copy of the Daily Prophet. He stood up when she reached the bottom of the stairs and they began to leave the dorm. They did not talk much on their way to Hogsmeade, other than warn each other if they heard a professor coming down the halls. When they reached Hogsmeade Hermione took charge. Draco had no idea what he was looking for, so he just had to trust Hermione to find him a good gift.

It was a little odd for Hermione, shopping for something for Draco to give to her. She felt weird, shopping for herself in a way. But at least she knew that she would like whatever it was that he ended up getting for her. She took him to a jewelry store, knowing that as much as she liked books and quills, that was not how Draco saw Emily. She needed a gift that both the Emily he knew and she herself would really like.

"Jewelry is never a bad idea with women." Hermione told him. "Almost any woman enjoys getting more jewelry, even if she never ends up wearing a particular piece, just having makes them feel better, almost superior." Draco looked amused by this. "But they only really like it if it is a good piece of jewelry. It has to be their color, style, good quality, and not tacky." Amusement turned to an expression that showed that he was slightly overwhelmed by all the requirements of jewelry. "Describe this girl's features as best as you can remember them. This will help determine what her color pallet is." Hermione was shocked that Draco had taken the time to memorize her features so perfectly. At least, the features that Emily had. He knew her hair color, eye color, skin color, height, body type, everything. He obviously like Emily more than Hermione herself had realized.

Hermione never liked lying. She avoided it when possible. But she felt that it was best for herself to fib a little with Draco. If she wanted to be able to wear the jewelry when she was not Emily, it had to fit her color pallet. So she lied. She told him the colors that she herself looked best in. He sounded pleased and accepted them without question. He took a tray and began making selections, saying that once he had chosen a bunch, they would go through them together to find the right one. His selections were quite good, especially considering that he had told her how his mother usually did his shopping for him.

"These are actually very beautiful choices," she told him once he had made all of his selections, "you have done quite well."

"Is your color pallet at all like hers?" He asked her, looking at her oddly.

"Yes, very much alike", again with the lying, but Hermione felt it was necessary.

"Good" he said, picking up the first necklace, "you can be the model then, to see which one is best." Hermione laughed at modeling for her own jewelry, but agreed all the same. It took them about an hour to decide, but decide they did. Draco looked at her with a little bit of awe in his eyes, once she even heard him whisper 'wow' under his breath. She guessed that he had just never seen her wearing such nice things. Probably because the necklaces were all out of her price range. But none of them were too much for Draco, he even commented that he felt they were a bit cheap, so he bought their two favorites to make himself feel better.

Hermione managed to convince him to go wait for her in the Three Broomsticks while she went to get a last minute gift for her father. He left and she went to a men's' accessories store. There she found slightly expensive, but extremely fragrant cologne that she liked. It was a great scent and she thought that Draco would like it. She had it gift wrapped and left the store. She then went to meet up with Draco for drinks before heading back to school.

**AN: Please review!**


	17. The Day that is Both an Eve and a Day

Chapter 17- the day that is both an eve and a day

**AN: Read and Review please!**

Hermione woke up on Christmas Eve with the jitters. She was both extremely excited and nervous. She knew that she got along well with Damien, and even Draco as of late, but she still felt anxious. She wanted everything to be just right. She went down to the kitchens to talk to the house elves.

"Hello Miss," a house elf Hermione did not know greeted her once she entered. "How may Gotty help Miss today?" Hermione smiled, house elves were some of the nicest creatures she had ever had the pleasure to encounter.

"I was wondering if I could place a request for food to be sent up to a certain room, if you are not too busy tonight." The elf nodded energetically.

"What is Miss wanting and where?" Hermione began to list a bunch of fun foods for dinner, desert, and Christmas breakfast. She outlined when she would like each meal to be delivered and described the room. Luckily for her, Gotty knew of the Room of Requirements and assured her that he would be able to get the food to the room at the specified times.

"Thank you so much, and please, do not over work yourselves just because I do not want to eat with the other students." All the elves chimed in this time, swearing that they would not be over worked at all and that it would be a pleasure. Hermione then left the kitchens, satisfied that food was taken care of.

Other than ordering the food, Hermione had not been responsible for any other preparations. The room would provide them with a realistic looking fake tree and decorations. They had agreed that it would be more fun to decorate it themselves together than have the room decorate it.

Well, Hermione thought, they had not really agreed on it so much as "Emily" had begged and pleaded until "Damien" agreed to do it her way and decorate it the muggle way. So to pass the time before she was due in the room of requirements Hermione worked on her animagus transformation in her room. She almost had it. She figured maybe if she had more space she might feel less stressed and able to focus better, so she moved to the common room. She was still practicing when Draco came in from breakfast. He helped her with what he saw her doing wrong and she tried again. Draco's eyes went wide. Hermione no longer looked like Hermione. Hermione had turned into a cat. But not just any cat. Hermione had transformed into a medium sized snow leopard. She was beautiful in an intimidating and scary kind of way and Draco just stared in awe.

Since she was new at it Hermione could not hold her shape for long, it took thought and control which she had yet to build up, so she transformed back into herself and sat down on the floor, shocked. She could not even talk. She had just _transformed_, into a snow leopard. She had half expected her animagus form to be the same as her patronus, an otter. She had been less than ecstatic at that prospect, but she wanted to become an animagus anyway. Her work had apparently been rewarded, she was so happy with her animagus form. It was not particularly inconspicuous, but she did not care, she never planned to transform in public, it was just for fun.

Hermione finally regained the use of her vocal cords. "I can't believe we did it." She said, looking up at Draco. "I'm an animagus! This is so exciting, thank you so much, it would have taken so much longer without your help!" She stood up and hugged Draco briefly. Draco did not hug her back, naturally, but he did not protest or push her away either. He even smiled.

"Congratulations, that was pretty impressive. I am sure that normal people do not learn to be an animagus that quickly. But then again, you are more intelligent than normal people." Hermione blushed a bit. "Your animagus was pretty cool, though it won't blend into everyday life very well."

"No," Hermione agreed, laughing a little. "But that was never the purpose now was it?" He shook his head. "Well thanks." She said awkwardly. "I'm starving now, I am going to go get some food. See you later." She waved at him as she walked towards the door.

"See you later." He said as he headed up to his room.

They both spent the rest of the day passing the time in their own ways. Hermione mostly read books from her list and continued to write her own book. Draco finished the last few preparations and wrapped his gift for Emily. Finally, it was 6 o'clock. They had agreed to both show up to the room at different times, Damien at 6:15pm and Emily at 6:30pm so as to avoid raising suspicion.

When Draco first arrived at the room he was not entirely sure what he was supposed to think while walking in front of the room. He finally settled for,_ I need a place for a friend and I to enjoy Christmas Eve together._ When he entered the room he knew that he had thought the right thing. The room looked spectacular and he was so excited for Emily to get to see it. He had a secret Christmas wish. He was pretty sure that he was not going to get it, but he could hope anyway. He wanted Emily to get him the gift for Christmas that he most wanted, the knowledge of what her true identity was. He had gone over and over his list of potential girls with little success. She did not fit into any of his categories. 6:30pm came and went. Emily was late.

Hermione was frazzled. She had been mistaken in thinking that she was ready and could relax all day. She did not know what to wear, or what to bring. Should she bring a change of close since she was staying overnight? Should she bring pajamas? Where did she put her gift for Damien? Finally she located her gift, settled on shrinking both pajamas and a spare set of clothes and putting them in her purse just in case. She put on a simple, elegant, white dress. It was strapless and went down to two inches below her knees. It had a tight bodice and flared out at the waist. It reminded her of the famous Marilyn Monroe dress that Damien would know nothing about. The main difference was the strip of two inch thick green silk around the top of the bodice, making it more Christmas-y. Finally, she turned her hair red again and her eyes brown. Feeling like Emily and finally ready, she left for the room of requirements about ten minutes late already. When she got there it was already 6:50pm. She felt bad that she was late, but she was not about to go there without being sure that she looked good.

When she entered she felt even worse. There Damien sat, looking bored, in one of the chairs at the table. She'd asked for dinner to arrive at 6:45pm, so he was sitting, alone, in front of a meal for two. She ducked her head a bit, slightly embarrassed to make him wait, she felt rude.

"Hey, sorry I'm late" Hermione said as she walked further into the room. "I could not decide on what to wear, and then I misplaced your gift, and then I had to do my hair and my eyes, and then…" Thankfully Damien cut her off.

"It's fine Emily," he said, "I'm just glad that you're here." Emily smiled. "Please, would you care to join me for dinner?" He smiled as he said this, standing up to pull out her chair for her. She nodded her thanks as she sat. "You look lovely; I think you chose a great dress." She blushed a bit. "So, I love your choices for Christmas Eve dinner." Emily kind of laughed, giggled really.

"I was sort of hungry when I placed the order, so I just named every item that came to mind that sounded delicious at the time. This is what I came up with." Damien laughed a little too, hearing the humorous explanation.

While they ate dinner they decided to get to know each other even better. They revisited the game that they played the night that they met. They alternated asking each other questions; they had to answer whatever they were asked.

"So, when you were a child, what was something you did that you are ashamed of?" Damien asked.

"Well" Emily thought about it. "When I was six my mom took me to swimming lessons, I didn't want to swim, so I took a candy bar with me." Emily blushed, remembering. "When my mom wasn't looking I unwrapped it and threw it into the pool. The lifeguards made everyone get out of the pool when they saw it, thinking that some kid had gone to the bathroom in the pool. My mom took me home, thoroughly disgusted, and I never had to go back to that pool for lessons." Damien almost had tears in his eyes from trying to contain his laughter. "It's alright, I know you want to laugh." She smiled, to show him it was really ok. He burst into laughter.

"That's brilliant." He told her. Now she had to ask the question.

"Out of all the things that people assume are true about you, Draco Malfoy that is, what's one of the rumors that is not true. I know that they can't all be true, you're no superman." Damien looked kind of confused.

"Who's superman?"

"Oh, he's a comic book super hero in the muggle world. He's make believe, imaginary, but he saves the world in movies and stuff." He nodded in comprehension.

"Well, and you have to promise not to tell a soul?" He put a serious look on.

"I promise" and she really meant it.

"The biggest lie that I let continue to circulate about me is the rumor that I am the Slytherin Sex God. I mean, I'm sure I'm amazing, but I'm a…I'm a…" His voice went down to whispering volume, "I'm a virgin." His voice went back to normal. "But you can't tell anyone. If word of that got out, I would be way less popular with the girls, probably the guys too. People need someone to look up to." He smiled after saying it. It was then Emily's turn to laugh. Damien looked perplexed. "Now why is that funny?" That just made Emily laugh harder.

"You have a reputation for being the best shag in the school. You _are_ most definitely called the Slytherin Sex God, but you're a virgin." Damien smiled a little. "I mean, just thinking about whoever started that rumor makes me laugh. They said you were great in bed and they have obviously never slept with you. Girls can be so weird." Damien finally laughed for real, understanding what Emily found funny at least. 

"Well, once I heard it I wasn't about to discourage it or dispute it. It upped my reputation and I'll never say no to that." He smiled, to show that he wasn't completely conceited.

They continued with similar questions for about an hour. At last, they were so exhausted from laughing that they migrated to the couch. Looking at the bare Christmas tree Emily knew that they should start on the decorations.

"We can do the lights and tinsel with magic, but the ornaments have to be done by hand, ok. The star especially, you have to put the star up yourself."

"But I can't reach that high; magic would be so much easier."

"It's traditional at Christmas time to see men on ladders, putting up stars. And look at that, the room has now provided you with a ladder, when the time comes you can use it to put up the star." Damien grudgingly agreed and they began to string the lights with magic. Once that was finished they started to drape the tinsel with magic as well. Eventually they moved on to the ornaments. The ornaments provided by the room were lovely. After hanging as many ornaments as they felt necessary, Emily dragged the ladder over to the side of the tree.

"Up you go." She said, holding out the star for Damien to take up with him. Once that was done the ladder disappeared. Before they took the time to look at it properly Emily went and got their gifts for each other and placed them under the tree. They stepped back to admire their handiwork.

It was then that the room did something all on its own. Later, both would deny ever wishing for the room to do what it did, but the room was not known to act out of its own accord.

"Oh, my." Emily said, looking up.

"What's wrong?" Damien asked, following her eyes upward. "What's that?"

Emily stared at him like he'd grown horns. "You mean to tell me that wizards don't have mistletoe?" He shook his head.

"What's it mean?" 

"Tradition is that any two people caught under the mistletoe have to…have to…kiss." She blushed. "It's a silly tradition." Damien smiled.

"Well, we had to follow the silly tradition of hanging the ornaments by hand and I had to climb up a ladder to put on a star because of a silly tradition, I don't know why we would stop following traditions now." Emily's blush deepened.

Damien leaned in slowly, giving Emily ample time to back away or say no. She didn't. Their lips met, not for long, but it was a kiss all the same. Once they'd pulled away they both smiled. "Shall we sit, it's not really time to sleep yet, so I think we could sit in front of the fire and talk, or read, or something." Emily nodded and the returned to the couch. The room gave them a book, it just so happened that the book was one of the books on Hermione's list of books to read, but Damien didn't need to know that. They read together for a while, mostly Damien reading while Emily listened. In the end, Emily fell asleep leaning on Damien's chest, listening to him read.

**AN: Please review.**


	18. Waking Up

Chapter 18-waking up.

**AN: Please read and review!**

When Emily woke up the food she had asked for had already been delivered. The elves must have been very quiet, to have set the table so nicely with so much food and yet not have waken either of them. Thinking about Damien, Emily looked at him. He was still sleeping, one of his arms wrapped around her, holding her to him as he slept. They slept soundly through the night, meaning that Emily was still on his chest as they lay together on the couch. Emily smiled. She couldn't help thinking how nice it was to have a friend who cared about her so much. Deep down she knew that he cared for Emily, and that it might not be the same if Damien realized that Emily was Hermione. Thinking of Damien as Draco though, she realized how close they had gotten in real life. Draco and Hermione were almost friends. They had their fights and bickering still, but since he figured out that she was sick he had been rather tolerable. Damien began to stir. Emily smiled down at him as he opened his eyes.

"Happy Christmas Damien" she said softly. He smiled up at her.

"Happy Christmas Emily" he replied. They sat up together, so that neither would go tumbling to the ground. Once they were sitting upright next to each other on the couch Damien turned to Emily again.

"I'm just wondering…" he hesitated, nervous to voice his thoughts.

"Wondering what?" Emily asked, encouraging him to go on.

"I was just wondering if yesterday has to fall under the category of a silly tradition." Emily just looked at him, completely at a loss as to what he was talking about. "I mean, I'm not saying that I asked the room to do what it did, 'cause I didn't, but I don't see why the room has to be wrong." Emily still looked at him blankly, clearly perplexed. "I mean to say, I liked the silly tradition of mistletoe. I was just wondering if…if it had to remain a silly tradition, or if it could actually mean something." Enlightenment came to Emily, but her voice did not. For several minutes she just stared at him. "Please say something."

"Well, I'm just coming up against one moral wall in my mind." She admitted.

"And what wall might that be?"

"Well, it's just that you don't know who I am, and I'm not ready to tell you just yet."

"Yes, I've accepted that, what's the issue?"

"I'm, I mean the real me, isn't someone you would want to be kissing. I know who you are, so I would be making the choice to be with you, for who you really are, but you. You might think you want this now, but later, when or if you find out who I really am, you might be totally disgusted. I would hate to take that free choice away from you. You should be allowed to know who you are choosing to kiss, and I don't think you would choose me." It was Damien's turn to stare at her.

"But I want to make this choice. I know who I am, and I know the type of people in this school. There is no one in this school that you could turn out to be that I would be completely horrified to have been with. I am making this choice. Now I'm just wondering what choice you are going to make, since you do know who I am, I imagine it's a harder choice for you than me. You don't have the option to fantasize that I'm some amazing guy you've never noticed in the hallways before. You know exactly who I really am and you have to choose me with that, or maybe even in spite of that, considering your first reaction at the ball." Damien then waited patiently while Emily sat down at the table to think.

There were so many things to consider. On a basic level, there was the fact that they weren't at all like that in real life. Also there was the fact that it was completely wrong. He was completely wrong for her. And yet she'd been spending lots of time with him lately, knowing it was wrong. Also there was the fact that she still felt like she would be taking a certain amount of choice from him, but she just wasn't ready to tell him who she really was. She liked Emily; she almost needed the freedom Emily had, considering her real-life situation. But on that note, she was dying. She knew she was going to die; there was nothing that anyone could do for her. Wasn't "Fall in love" number 20 on her list? Last night she had been able to, without even thinking about it, check number 2 off her list: "Kiss a guy". She'd also checked the second half of number 11, since she'd finally opted to wear her lacy thong and bra underneath her dress. She decided that since he'd already seen her in them, it wouldn't matter if he could see the straps and recognized what she was wearing. She needed to live life to the fullest and Damien, or the illusion that Damien provided, might be her only chance at any form of love before she died. She stood up and turned to face Damien. She smiled. He gave a weak smile back, unsure of the outcome of her deep thoughts.

"I would love it if that were to mean more than just the fulfillment of a silly tradition." Damien smiled genuinely.

"Does that mean I can kiss you now?" He asked, Emily grinned, a little nervous.

"Yes, it does." Damien closed the gap between them. He smiled sweetly at her and brushed her hair away from her face. He first kissed her forehead. He then lowered his head just enough and their lips made contact for the second time. It wasn't long, and it wasn't passionate, but it was a start. When he pulled away they both smiled at each other and then sat down for breakfast, ready to enjoy Christmas Day together and prepared to savor every minute of it.

**AN: Please read and review, **


	19. Christmas Day Excitement

Chapter 19-christmas day excitement

**AN: I hope you enjoy it; the next chapter is going to be an important one, I'm so excited! Read and Review!**

After breakfast they decided to open presents. Before Emily could even suggest it the room had started playing a mixture of muggle and wizarding Christmas music. Emily happily sang along to those she liked best while Damien watched in amusement.

"Don't you ever sing along?" She asked as he just continued to watch.

"Not really, people in my family don't generally act like that, ever really." Emily looked at him a bit sadly.

"You have to; it's part of the experience." They had a stare off, Emily won. Damien began to sing along quietly. Emily accepted it and did not try to push it farther.

"Present time!" She smiled a big, genuine grin. Damien returned a similar smile, with a slight smirk hidden in his smile. They sat down by the tree and retrieved their gifts for each other. They smiled a bit as they exchanged boxes. Emily had added her personal touch to the gift, so that it wouldn't seem so plain. As Damien opened his gift, she had insisted that he had to go first, she smiled. Inside was the nice cologne that she had bought for him, but she had included something else special. She had spent hours in the library looking up the proper spells to make her gift for him. It was a picture frame. Like muggle electric photo frames it changed its image every five seconds. The difference was that these weren't actual pictures, she had used her own memories to take memory snapshots from the ball, their ditch day, and their other times together. Damien gasped.

"This is so cool. How did you do it?" Emily quickly explained the spell process. Damien nodded, it was nice to know that he actually understood what she was saying, unlike if she were to try to explain it to Harry or Ron. "Are you saying that I smell bad?" Damien asked jokingly, holding up the cologne.

"Of course not, I'm just saying now you can smell even better." They both laughed. Then Damien turned his attention to Emily and the present in her lap.

"Open it! I hope you like it, I got good help picking it out, but if you don't like it I'll blame her." Emily chuckled at that thought, knowing that he was referring to Hermione.

What surprised her most was that when she opened the box there were more than two things in there. It seemed that Damien had embellished his gift as well. Inside she found the two necklaces that they had picked out that day when Draco and Hermione went shopping. Underneath the two necklaces she found a tiny box tied with a bow. When she pulled the bow she found the box full of dirt. Then, right before her eyes a tiny green stem grew. She watched until a fully bloomed lisianthus in a vibrant purple color and a brown rose. The two flowers were intertwined starting at the roots and going all the way up. It was Emily's turn to gasp.

"Are these ever-fresh flowers?" Damien nodded. "That's really complicated magic, especially to intertwine them like this. This is amazing." Damien smiled.

"I spent some time looking up the proper spells. I thought it would be cool, since brown is my favorite color and purple is yours. That was one of the first things we ever told each other."

"That it is. I love it. And the jewelry is simply stunning. Your female friend did well. They will match my coloring perfectly." Damien was pleased to hear that, he had been nervous that maybe Hermione wasn't the most knowledgeable person when it came to fashion, but apparently it had paid off. He helped her to put on the necklace with the teardrop shaped red diamond pendant. Emily thought that it was much too expensive, but Damien would hear nothing of it. Besides, it matched her hair and the Christmas color scheme.

Once presents were taken care of they decided that since they were disguised as Damien and Emily they could wander the grounds freely. They bundled up so as not to freeze. When they got down to the grounds they found a fresh layer of packing snow had fallen during the night. Together they made a ginormous snowman that ended up looking like a fat old man. They built a huge snow fort, building up the walls all around it. Then they did the same thing again, making a fort of the same size a ways away from the first fort. Then they took their positions. The most epic of all snowball fights ensued. From within their forts they whipped out snowballs in an attempt to damage the other person's fort. In the end Damien was declared the winner. They made snow angels side-by-side and even made their angels touching wing tips. By the time they had finished playing in the snow and were thoroughly wet it was time for lunch back in the room of requirements.

The room started a fire for them as soon as they entered and produced a rack for them to set their clothes out to dry on. They changed into the clothes they brought for the day, finally abandoning their pajamas. They chatted happily as they ate and then they just sat, warming together in front of the fire. Damien was a little sad that she hadn't revealed her true identity, but he held on hope, since there was still quite a lot of day left.

They spent the rest of the day in the room of requirement. They saw no reason to leave it. They played some games, talked, told more stories of their childhoods, continued reading, and just enjoyed being together. They had gotten to be very comfortable together, no longer feeling awkward when they hugged or kissed. They had agreed that they would go their separate ways after dinner. When the elves brought dinner to the room, Emily was shocked to find that it was half past six already.

"Wow, do you realize how little we have done today? We have spent the whole day lazing about." They chuckled.

"I know, but I don't regret a single minute of it. I've never enjoyed the holidays as much as I have this year. My family certainly needs to adopt some of your "silly traditions" that you have taught me these past two days." Emily smiled, thinking about that image, finding it hard to see Lady Malfoy participating in such muggle traditions.

After they finished eating they said their goodbyes. They agreed that Emily would head back first and Damien would wait about five to ten minutes before departing. They hugged and kissed, saddened at the thought that they didn't spend every day like that. Emily was slightly freaked by her feelings. She'd known that she no longer hated Draco, but Damien had introduced a whole new feeling to the mix. She had never expected Draco to be capable of caring for somebody else like Damien cared for Emily, so it had caught her by surprise.

Hermione rushed, trying to be sure that she would not appear out of breath or anything when Draco made it back to their room. She changed back to Hermione as she went through the hallways, positive that no one could see her. By the time she reached the room she was entirely Hermione again, except for the necklace. She ran up to her room and put her gifts in the same locked trunk where she kept all the letters between Emily and Damien. Once that was finished she decided that she needed a shower. She changed into a clean pair of underwear and put a white tank top on to get her to the bathroom. She didn't want to run the risk of being caught naked by Draco; that would be horribly embarrassing. When she was done she tossed a silky robe over it all and grabbed her shower stuff. As she came down the stairs she didn't look where she was going. She did, however, notice when she ran full on into Draco. He had gotten back faster than she had anticipated. She fell, dropping her stuff on the floor. She landed face down. She wasn't hurt, as she'd only fallen a short way, but Draco was frozen where he sat, having fallen down right next to her but having been graceful enough to catch himself and sit. She realized why he must have been staring at her when she noticed that her robe was up near her head, exposing her underwear to him. It was normal underwear, but Hermione just assumed he must have been in shock at seeing her so scantily dressed at all. However, when she pulled her robe down and sat up to look at him she realized that it must have been something else.

His face portrayed shock and disbelief, confusion and perplexity. His eyes hadn't moved from where he had been staring before she sat up. She waved her hand in front of his face. His head jerked up to look at her right in the eyes. He was beginning to make Hermione nervous.

"Where did you get that!?"

**AN: Hope you like it. Please review. Thanks!**


	20. New Directions

Chapter 20-new directions.

**AN: I hope you enjoy it, and remember, things are never what they seem! **

Recap: "Where did you get that!?"

Chapter:

"What?" Hermione asked, nervous at the shocked look on Draco's face.

His eyes travelled back down, coming to rest on her now covered leg. Hermione just stared at him, waiting for an explanation.

"On your leg, where did it come from?" Hermione still did not know what he was talking about, so she pulled her robe away from her legs, keeping it covering her bottom.

"What?" She asked, gesturing at her leg.

"That horrible rash! It looks dreadfully painful. You should go to the Hospital Wing." Hermione finally looked at where he was pointing to. She had a large red rash of hives climbing up her legs. She sighed.

"I have an allergy to Christmas trees," she explained. "It always acts up this time of year, especially on my legs, since my pants or skirts touch the trees the most. It's really not that bad." She smiled at him, trying to make him worry less. She really did not want to have to go to the Hospital wing, not in her incurable condition; they might want to try and fix her and she knew that to be impossible.

"Are you sure you don't want something for the pain or the itching? I could get something for you, it looks awful." He looked really concerned. Hermione was touched that he had really come to care something for her heath in their real lives.

"It's fine, really." She assured him.

"Here, let me help you get up." He offered, holding out a hand for her to grab. After he helped her to stand he went to walk up to his room. A thread of Hermione's robe had gotten caught on his watch and as he walked away her robe came off completely. She gave a little yelp and turned to go to the bathroom, embarrassed to be standing in front of Draco Malfoy in only her underwear. Draco had turned when he hear her yelp and had, by that time, unhooked her robe from his watch. When he went to hand it to her he saw her retreating into the bathroom.

"Oh my god." He whispered. Hermione turned around, curious as to what had made him sound so shocked.

"What?" She asked, retrieving her robe from where he had just dropped it on the floor in front of him. She slipped back into it while he just stared at her for the second time in five minutes.

"You're Emily." It was Hermione's turn to stare, shock clear on her face.

"Who?" She pretended she had no clue what he was talking about, it was almost the truth in a twisted way.

"I can't believe you never occurred to me. Of course you would be the last person to ever skip school, and that's how you knew that I knew that you were sick, and that's why your room is purple, you told me it was your favorite color. And that's how you knew that Emily would like the jewelry I picked out, because you are her, or rather she is you. I can't believe this!" He was in shock, but Hermione was even more so.

"What in the world is making you say this now?" She was careful to neither confirm nor deny.

"When you turned to go to the bathroom just now, without your robe, I was with you the day you got that tattoo. Remember? I have a matching one." He pulled up his sleeve to show her the tattoo of the dragon and the owl. "I thought I saw something when you fell, but I just assumed it was the rash that caught my eye. But now I know. I don't know what to say." He couldn't believe that he'd actually gotten his one true Christmas wish and he wasn't sure he even wanted it anymore. Things were so much more complicated. He had feelings for Emily. But Hermione was Emily and Hermione was dying. He wasn't even sure if he had the same feelings for Hermione as he did for Emily. Damien and Emily were two completely different people, even if he now knew her true identity.

Hermione was studying her feet, waiting to hear what his reaction would be. She almost didn't want to hear it.

"I'm going to be honest with you; I'm not really sure what I think about this." He told her, she didn't look up. "Remember, it took you a while to warm up to me once you knew who I really was. I need time too. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing; I just need to absorb it. I think I'm going to go to the room of requirements to think it all over. Just, please, give me some space for now. I'll find you when I finally get my head around it all." With this promise he left, heading off to think. Hermione wasn't sure what to think either.

Not knowing what else to do, Hermione continued on her path to the bathroom, finally starting her shower.

Three days passed before Draco talked to Hermione again. He really did just need some time and space. He had to decide if he wanted to be more than friends with Hermione like he had with Emily. Lots of things were different. First of all, Emily was Hermione; he had not been expecting that. Secondly, Hermione was terminally ill. He was not all that sure that he wanted to trust someone with his heart if they were not going to be there for very long. Losing a friend would be difficult, since he had come to see Hermione as a kind of friend, but losing a girlfriend or a love would be that much harder. He was not sure the few months they would have together would be worth all the added pain. Draco finally made his decision and went to search out Hermione to tell her.

"Hey" he said meekly when he finally found her in the library. He had not spoken to her in three days, so he was not sure whether she was mad at him for taking so long or not.

"Oh," she looked surprised. "Have you decided something then?" Her tone was a little frosty, but her eyes told him that she was not really angry, just a bit put out.

"I have." There was a moment of silence as they both realized what this decision could mean for each of them. "I know that you are ill, and you are not going to get better" he said it softly, wondering how tender a topic it was, but she nodded, letting him know it was ok. "To lose a friend is hard enough, but to put your heart out, trust someone with it, only to have them leave you forever, that is much harder. The question became whether or not I thought the few months we would have together would be worth all the added pain." Hermione began studying her shoes again, she knew what was coming, what conclusion he must have come to. "I decided that it would be worth it, I want to be with you, no matter the pain."

"It's ok-" Hermione cut off, she had had a response planned for him saying she was not worth it. His answer surprised her. "I don't know what to say" she told him. "I'm shocked, truly. Why do you think I'm worth it all?" He looked perplexed that she would ask him straight out, but she was always rather direct and to the point.

"I had so much fun at the ball with Emily, and you gave me the extra chance, even when you found out who I was. Knowing who you are, I am extremely shocked that you gave me that chance, considering my past. Since that night you have been amazing. My time with Emily has been some of my best times this year. Outside of the Emily and Damien relationship that kind of speaks for itself after Christmas, I like you as Hermione. We have become good friends. It has been really nice to have two people in my life that I enjoy spending time with and who I feel really care about me. Combining those two people into one person is getting the best of both. I can't justify not giving us a try, considering I like both you and Emily independent of one another, why would I not like you all in one? Besides, I can't imagine you going through all this on your own. You need me, and I have come to need both you and Emily."

Despite her best efforts Hermione had tears in her eyes. That was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever said about her, she could not imagine Harry or Ron saying anything like that, ever.

Draco and Hermione started slowly. They did not want to totally freak out the whole school. First things first they brought their friendship public. They had been friends for several weeks by then, though everyone had been on holiday for most of that time. But now that everyone was back in school, it was ok to show that things had changed.

"Are you out of your mind!?" Ron was shouting, Hermione had not heard the cause just yet, but she thought she had an idea as to what might have upset him.

"I'm sorry Ronald; I can't read minds, so you are going to have to actually tell me what you are talking about." Ron's face was beet read.

"Do NOT act like you don't know what's going on, I saw you." Harry still looked confused. Hermione knew what Ron was talking about, but she still wanted him to actually have to say it.

"What Ronald? You saw me what? I am pretty sure you have seen me before, it should not be anything new." Ron started pacing.

"No, it was new. We leave you alone for a few weeks to go on holiday and I come back to find you hanging out with Malfoy?! What is that?" Harry looked shocked.

"Hermione has not been hanging out with Malfoy, you must have seen somebody else, or been dreaming, or something."

"No, he did see me with Draco." She decided to get right to the point, it seemed easiest.

"But why?" Harry was much calmer, though she could tell he was thoroughly confused.

"Draco is he now?" Ron was shouting again. "What, have we been replaced? You've gone to the dark side?" Hermione laughed.

"Of course you've been replaced." They both looked stunned and hurt. "If I did not replace you I would be entirely on my own. Even before you went on holiday I was alone. Think about it, when was the last time either of you spent more than a single minute with me? You guys are so caught up in your new, care-free world without danger, crushing on girls and being total guys, that it never occurred to you that you guys are practically my only friends. Without you two I needed a new friend, so I got one. You two have failed me, so suck it up. I will be friends with whomever I want and you two will have no say in the matter. You have no right to judge me based on who I chose to be friends with, so sod off." Hermione turned on the spot and attempted to make the huffy and dramatic exit she had seen in movies as a child, she tripped a bit on the carpet, but other than that it was marginally successful.

As she made her spectacular exit she heard Ron say, "What's gotten into her?" She couldn't help thinking, and not for the first time, _what an idiot._

**AN: Please review!**


	21. A Bumpy Ride

Chapter 21-a bumpy ride.

**AN: Please read and review!**

Since her conversation with Ron and Harry, neither of them had spoken to her, they were not even looking at her. Draco was being pretty good about it all, comforting her. But finally she decided it was time to get on with her life. She really needed to keep moving, since she only had so much life left. Combining Damien and Draco made completing her list easier; she did not have split her time. Draco continued to help her with her book, language and instrument, but she needed him for one other task.

"You want to do what?" Hermione was giving Draco her best impression of the 'puppy dog eyes', begging him to help her out.

"You said you would help me with whatever I needed to do, this is number four on my list, I _have_ to do it. I just don't know how, please help me." Draco huffed and gave a big sigh.

"Fine, but there are different levels." Hermione listened intently as Draco explained her options.

"Depending on the severity of the rule breaking, different levels of severity are found in the detentions as well. For example, flooding a corridor gets you three days scrubbing floors without magic, but stepping on Mrs. Noris gets you two weeks polishing all the trophies in the trophy room every night." Hermione laughed, remembering when Ron and Harry had to do that.

Together they decided on an entry level rule breaking with a short and mild detention. All they had to do was to get caught out after curfew.

Of course it was not until they were caught out after curfew that they remembered that they were the only students in the school allowed out at all hours. Epic failure there.

Next they decided to try writing profanities on the walls of the bathroom. However that too backfired when Professor Flitwick caught them and assumed that they were cleaning it up, reprimanded them for doing detention goers work and sent them off to bed.

As things always turn out, they got their wish when they were not asking for it. The two of them had been spending so much time trying to earn a detention that they both completely forgot about a three foot essay Professor Snape had assigned them.

"Detention, for the both of you." Snape told them. "It's disgraceful and unacceptable, no one, not even the Head Boy and Head Girl, gets away with neglecting homework assigned by me." Draco and Hermione tried to hide their smiles. "Meet me in my office at six tonight." They nodded their understanding and went back to their seats, ecstatic.

"_This is so exciting!_" Hermione's whispered words drifted across the classroom o where Draco was sitting, cataloging ingredients. Naturally he got to catalog and Hermione got to thoroughly clean all the cauldrons without the use of magic, but that's Snape.

"I never thought I'd see the day when Hermione do-gooder Granger would be excited to be serving a detention." Hermione lopped a blob of soapy bubbles at Draco for that comment. He whined that she had gotten his nice robes dirty.

"You are such a girl sometimes Draco." Upon hearing her say this Draco's jaw dropped.

"How could you say such a thing?" He exclaimed incredulously. "I've certainly proved to you that I am no girl." Hermione laughed at this, but next thing she knew Draco was charging at her and tackling her to the ground. Once he had her there he tickled her mercilessly until she gave in.

"Alright," she finally conceded. "You are never anything even remotely resembling a girl, now please stop!" She had trouble even saying her surrender due to frequent interruptions to scream with laughter. However, once she had forced all the words out Draco stopped tickling her.

"I see I have successfully proven my superiority." He said this while standing, feet apart, with his fists on his hips, a dominating stance. Unfortunately his powerful posture was ruined when Hermione tugged on his ankles, forcing him to fall flat on his butt. Once they had finally calmed down they decided to finish their work before Snape came back to yell at them for disregarding their duties.

The next day they made a plan to focus on one item on her list until that item was completed and then move on to the next item, not splitting their focus up on all the unfinished bits. She had about six or seven items left, though there were a few that she had no plans on telling Draco about. The first, and easiest they hoped, item they decided to tackle was number nine: write a book.

"So, now that you're half way through, I think it would be best if you gave your readers something new, something exciting. Maybe introduce a new character." Hermione stared at Draco in amazement.

"How are you so good at this whole process?"

"I don't know. I could never write a book myself, but I am generally pretty good at helping others with stuff I wouldn't do on my own." He grinned at her, she smiled back. "Perhaps your new character could be a dashingly handsome and sexy blonde guy who all the ladies want to date." Hermione laughed at his suggestion.

"Am I getting the impression that you want to be in my book?" Draco smiled.

"Well, you and Potter and Weasley are all in it, I think I should be too." Hermione frowned.

"Harry and Ron aren't in it." She half stated, half asked.

"Oh come on, the main character is a girl right?" Hermione nodded. "And she just got in a huge fight with two guys, right?" She nodded again. "And one of the guys was mad because she was in love with a third guy and the other didn't believe it, right?"

"Sort of, I guess." Hermione thought for a second. "I guess if you put it that way it does sound a bit like them, but then in that case wouldn't you be the third guy. Since Ralph, the third guy, steals Teresa away from her friends Kyle and Pierre, then wouldn't that make you Ralph, stealing me Teresa away from Ron and Harry? So you are in it, if you choose to apply the book to my life, which is not how I intended it."

"Alright, something else then, maybe kill off one of the characters, or something else dramatic. Someone could get pregnant, or ill…" Silence fell and the atmosphere got a bit uncomfortable. And as if sensing the topic of discussion sparks flashed at the corner of Hermione's vision, clinging to her hair and cracking like lightning and thunder. Hermione broke the silence.

"Well, I guess Teresa could be pregnant, that would be interesting. That makes her choice to be with Ralph irreversible, since he would obviously be the father. And that begs the questions of whether, with her carrying his child, Kyle and Pierre will ever forgive and forget or if they will just never talk to her again. I like it. We will go with that. Thanks." Draco smiled, glad to move past the weird situation.

They worked for a few weeks on that project. Finally Hermione announced her novel complete. They were going to start on perfecting her German when they realized they had other responsibilities to fulfill.

"Ok, I've called this Prefects meeting to discuss a decision we made earlier in the year." Hermione opened, once all the prefects were seated. "We had decided on a Valentine's Day dance to be casual with a color requirement, is that correct?" When everyone nodded their agreement she went on. "Well, it is practically February, so I figured we should start planning, that way it could be an awesome dance. It should not feel like a date is required, but obviously it is going to be preferred, since it is Valentine's Day." Again people nodded their agreement.

"Well Hermione and I had an idea we wanted to run by you all, to get people in the mood for a Valentine's Day dance." Draco jumped in. "We thought it could be fun if we had what muggles apparently call candy-grams." He glanced at Hermione to see that he got the word right, he did. "Anyone would be able to send someone they cared about a heart shaped cookie on Valentine's Day for say, five knuts or so. That way it would be reasonably affordable. We could even go all out and give options, people could decide between a cookie, rice-krispy treat, brownie, treacle tart or cauldron cake." Again he glanced at Hermione to see that he got the muggle treats correct. "Now some of the treats mentioned were muggle, but Hermione and I taste-tested what the elves would make for us to sell, and they all tasted great, I assure you. And as a bonus, the money raised could be used to buy new brooms for the school. Speaking from experience back in first year, who can learn to fly on those ancient brooms, for not too much money we could buy reasonably better ones and donate them to the school as a gift from the prefects of this year. How does that sound?" Reactions varied. Most thought it sounded like a great idea, some complained about buying books for the library instead of brooms (Hermione), but some were less enthusiastic.

"Why would we have stupid muggle treats, jeez Draco, what happened to you? Did the mudblood poison your mind with muggle-loving nonsense?" Every face in the room, except for the two Slytherin prefects, went beet-red with anger. Draco stood up menacingly.

"Hermione has become a good friend of mine, and she is Head Girl. No matter your personal opinions she deserves your respect and she has earned at least the appearance of respect from you. You could earn a week's worth of detentions for calling her that name and I will not tolerate it. If you can't contain yourself you are free to leave. I have had my eyes opened, it is about time you opened yours." The Slytherins looked shocked. They stood up, spit at Draco and Hermione, and left.

"Well," Draco continued, "without the help of those two I think we will be able to pull this all off. If there are no more questions, meeting adjourned." He left quickly. Hermione followed.

Hermione found him in their rooms.

"Hey." She walked in slowly, wondering if he had left quickly because he was angry or upset in some way. He did not turn to look at her when she spoke so she assumed that meant he was upset.

"Are you ok?" She hated people asking that when she clearly was not ok, but she did not know what else to say. He did not answer. She walked over to where he was sitting on the couch and just sat down next to him. When he didn't move away or shoot her angry looks she assumed that meant that it was ok for her to sit with him. After a few minutes she picked up his hand and rubbed it between hers.

"What's wrong?" She said this in a quiet voice, nervous that he was just then realizing what being with her would do to him. She had worried that it would happen eventually, but she had hoped for more time. Naturally though, he had finally seen that she was totally not worth it all. It was too much. His friends would abandon him, hers would not accept either of them, and soon they would only have each other. She knew that he was finally seeing that having just her wasn't enough for him. He still didn't talk to her, so with all these thoughts going around in her head she let go of his hand. She stood up.

"I'm sorry." She whispered before standing up and running out of the room. She didn't want to start crying, or at least she didn't want him to see her crying. She had been fine, but it just hit her suddenly.

She hadn't realized how much he meant to her until she knew she had lost him. She really did care for him, and she really wanted to be with him, so knowing that he was finally realizing that he did not want to be with her, well, it hurt. She went to the room of requirement. She had not know what she needed until she walked into that room and saw it. The room of requirement had decorated itself in an exact replica of her bedroom at home. She threw herself onto her bed and just lay there.

The room gave her everything she needed, it gave her space and a bed to lie down and think on; she spent the night there. She wanted to give Draco all the time he needed to figure everything out for himself. She didn't want to rush him or pressure him. The next day the room gave her clothes and provided a spare set of books for her. She ate breakfast in the kitchens, not having anyone to go to the great hall to see, since Harry and Ron still were not talking to her. She then went to class. Her first few classes were fine, but she had potions with Draco, she was even his partner, having swapped a few weeks back. Luckily she got there before him. She sat in their normal place and got everything they would need for their potion ready and lined up along the desk.

When Draco finally arrived he sat down next to her and leaned over, putting his lips next to her ear. "We need to talk" he whispered to her.

They worked in silence the whole period, though they still produced the best potion in the class. After potions was lunch. Draco grabbed her elbow once she had collected her books and guided her to their rooms. Once inside he walked over to the couch and sat down.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Hermione decided to get right to the point, why drag it out?

"You know what I want to talk about." He spoke in a deep tone, almost reprimanding sounding. Hermione looked down at her feet, thinking about what he must be referring to, his decision to stop being with her. Draco continued, seeing as she did not seem about to talk.

"Why did you run off yesterday? What did I do? What did you do? Why did you say 'I'm sorry'?" He never took his eyes off her, though she wouldn't meet his eyes. "Look at me, please." She couldn't resist, he said please. She looked up at him. "What went wrong yesterday?" He looked pleadingly into her eyes. It was the Malfoy version of the puppy dog eyes.

"I really don't know what to say. I feel like I should be the one asking you these questions. Nothing happened with me, it was all you." She cringed, it sounded like she was blaming him for something, it wasn't his fault that he finally realized the truth.

"So I did do something wrong. Just tell me, please. I can't make right what I don't know." Hermione just stared at him.

"What do you mean 'make right'? You didn't _do_ anything." At that Draco stared at her.

"If I didn't do anything wrong then why did you leave so suddenly? Why did you seem upset? Why didn't you come back last night?" Hermione was seriously confused.

"I left because I thought it was what was best, given the circumstances. I didn't come back because I thought you needed some space and some time to, I don't know, adjust, accept it, whatever it was you needed to do."

"Adjust to what? Accept what? What circumstances?"

"I'm not unintelligent Draco; I could tell what happened in the prefects meeting. I know what that all must have made you realize. I thought to talk to you about it, sort it all out, but you didn't seem to want to talk, so I decided to give you your space. And I'm sorry, but I'm not going to pretend it doesn't hurt. I understand completely and I was kind of expecting it, but I did think I would have a bit more time." Draco looked completely perplexed.

"I'm sorry Hermione, but I really don't know what you are talking about. What is it you think I've realized, why does it hurt, what hurts? Whatever you say you understand completely I do not understand at all. What are you talking about?"

Hermione just looked at him, and then she dropped her gaze again. "When the Slytherins said what they did, asking if I'd poisoned you, changed you, their disgust with how you had changed, I know what that must have made you think. It's natural. Up until then it had only been me who had had to deal with the abandonment, the isolation that came with being with the enemy, you had yet to encounter that, since so few Slytherins really had noticed." She paused for a breath. "But naturally, being forced to realize what you would be giving up, everyone you would give up and to gain me and only me, I understand why that would be an awakening for you. I did not expect you to stay with me for very long, just as long as it took you to realize how very unworthy I was of all the trouble, I know I'm not worth what you would have to forfeit, I get it. I guess I just underestimated you abilities again, thinking, or maybe hoping, that it would take you longer to figure it out. I kind of hoped I would get to spend a bit more time with you." She was playing with her fingers, avoiding his gaze.

"Are you insane?" Her head snapped up at that.

"What?"

"That is what you thought was going on? That I was realizing that you _weren't_ worth all the trouble?" Hermione nodded, confused. "But it was just the opposite. I'm sorry I didn't reply to you, I guess I just didn't hear you. I was adjusting to something, accepting it, but that's not what." He smiled. "Hearing them talk about you the way I used to, remembering what I used to be like, it did give me an epiphany. I realized how very lucky I was. I hadn't really noticed how much you had changed me, but seeing them, and hearing my own reaction to them, it opened my eyes, like I said then. I realized how incredibly special you are and how much better off I am, being with you. You have changed me, but it is for the better. I'm still me, but in a better way. I was trying to absorb the intensity of what I feel for you. I've never felt this way before. It's strange. So yeah, I did need time, but I most certainly did not need space. I got worried when you ran off and never came back. I looked for you at breakfast, but you weren't there."

"I ate in the kitchen." It was all Hermione could get out. She was shocked.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for you to think that I was, I don't know, rethinking my decision to be with you. Come here." She scooted closer to him, still struggling to understand. He wrapped his arms around her.

"I may not know why I care about you. Our friends may not accept that we are together, as friends or as more. And I may not always have the easiest life because I've chosen to be with you, but I have chosen to be with you. That decision is not going to change. I'm not going to have some great epiphany and wake one day wanting nothing to do with you. I'm sorry that you thought that and that you have spent all this time expecting that to come." He grinned. "Sorry to disappoint, but that day is never coming. I'm with you; for whatever reason you fascinate me, you complete me I guess, as cheesy as that sounds. You are not getting rid of me that easily." Hermione smiled a bit. Draco kissed her on the forehead. For the rest of the lunch period they just stayed there, Draco holding Hermione, relaxing in the realization of their feelings for each other, as scary as they were.

**AN: Please, review. Thanks a ton and I hope you like where the story is going. :D**


	22. Mood Swings

Chapter 22- mood swings.

**AN: Please read and review! **

Over the next few weeks all of the prefects worked hard. They advertized for their candy grams and took orders. They planned for the dance and posted signs announcing it was going to be casual with a color requirement of pink, red, or purple. Since it was going to be casual they had decided to have games going on in the corners, while general dancing and eating and what-not goes on in the center. Hermione and Draco called a meeting to discuss what games to have.

"Thanks for coming everyone." Everyone was there, except for the Slytherins of course. "I thought we should brainstorm for the party. We need some fun games to play. I have one idea, but I need others. The levels of maturity can vary, but we need options for kids as young as first years. Any ideas?"

"Could we hear yours first?" One of the Hufflepuff prefects asked meekly.

"Sure," Hermione smiled at the prefects. "I always enjoyed the game called 'Darling I love you won't you please just smile?', do you all know what that is?" There were a few nods but mostly shaking heads. Hermione asked Draco if he would help her in a demonstration. He did not know how the game worked but he agreed. Hermione had him sit in a chair a bit away from the table, so that everyone could see.

"Now," she explained, "all Draco has to do is not smile. No teeth can show, no laughing, nothing. If he does, I win. If I can't get him to smile then I lose and I have to move on to the next person. It is generally done in a circle, with the loser in the center. Once they win one then they switch and the person they beat goes into the center. The line that the person in the center, i.e. me, must say in their speech is "Darling I love you, won't you please just smile". They can say whatever else they want in an attempt to make the person smile, but they **cannot** touch the other person, no tickling, nothing. So here it goes." Hermione knelt in front of Draco and folded her hands, appearing to plead with him.

"Darling" she said smoothly, staring into his eyes. "Darling, I love you" she enunciated. "Won't you please, _please_ just smile?" Draco did not smile. "Darling, Draco sweetie, if you really and truly cared about me you would smile." He still did not smile. "You know, I've added something to my list, we should check it off today. Number twenty-one is to make you smile in a ridiculous Valentine's Day game." Draco could not help it, he grinned.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it's done." She smiled. "You can use any tactic at all. I could have told him a sad and totally not true story about my dog running away from me and getting hit by a quidditch player on a broom, I could have mimed kissing him and tickling him until he cracked, or I could have just stared at him until he could not take it anymore. That's all the fun, there are so many ways to make someone laugh or smile."

"I only smiled at the thought of you actually being funny or entertaining." Draco sneered, attempting to regain some of his dignity. Everyone at the table laughed.

"Very good Draco, you just beat everyone, but you forgot to say 'Darling I love you won't you please just smile'." Everyone laughed again. "So, other ideas?"

They talked for over an hour. In the end they decided on three games. Darling I Love You, a game called Paper Dance, and a Valentine's Day themed charades.

Hermione explained Darling I Love You, Charades, and Paper Dance to Professor McGonagall in order to get permission. "Paper Dance is a dancing competition of sorts. Couples compete to see which couple can dance on the smallest piece of paper without falling or slipping. If either partner steps off the paper they are out. Last couple dancing wins. Every few minutes or so the paper is folded in half, getting smaller and smaller until only one couple is still able to dance on it." McGonagall approved all of the games, the color requirement, and she had already approved the candy grams. They were set to go with the dance.

As the dance approached Hermione assigned a few of the prefects to decorations committee. She would have been on the committee herself, except that her illness, the unintentional magic and the sparks were a danger to the decorations. She had already singed one heart shaped centerpiece they had looked at.

With Hermione being so distracted with the dance, Draco decided it was the perfect time to try and look in her _Diagnose Your Own Magical Maladies_ book. He had not forgotten that mood swings were not generally a side affect or symptom of Fluxi Magus. He wanted to input all her symptoms, including mood swings, and see if something better suited came up. He knew the mood swings were not just a girl thing, they had been getting progressively worse the entire year. She was getting very difficult to predict. He would offer to help with something for the dance and she would snap at him that she could do it herself. But the very next minute she would smile at him and ask him if he could please help out. She would be sitting comfortably with him in front of the fire, and then she would get mad at him for holding her "too tightly" and huff off to her room.

Hermione was out with one of the committees, making sure everything was going as planned, so he snuck over to the bookshelf in their rooms where she kept her precious book and took it off the shelves. He took it over to the couch and opened it up. Unfortunately before he could finish typing in the symptoms Hermione came in.

Draco looked up at her, unsure of what mood she would be in, ready to defend his actions.

**AN: Please read and review. Thanks!**


	23. Draco's Discovery

Chapter 23- draco's discovery

**AN: Please read and review!**

Hermione just started at him for a minute or two. Draco did not dare move a muscle.

"_What_ do you think you are doing?" She asked him in her scary, 'you-better-have-the-right-answer, I-can-cut-you-with-my-evil-eyes, voice.

"Looking up a disease?" His answer was more of a meek question. Hermione glared at him in response.

"And _who's_ disease are you looking up?" Before he could even open his mouth to lie she snatched the book right out of his hands. She saw her symptoms entered already, and he had been in the middle of entering something starting with 'mo'. She ignored that fact at the time. The point was the he was snooping in her business.

"HOW DARE YOU QUESTION MY DISEASE! HOW DARE YOU GO BEHIND MY BACK! WHAT?! YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME?!" She screamed at him before throwing the book at him and stomping angrily into the bathroom. She slammed the door and went to take a shower. Draco caught the book just before it hit the ground and entered the last symptom. After about a minute his results appeared.

_Hicca Magicus_-

This malady is relatively rare. It is nicknamed a 'hiccup' in one's magic. This

is not a very serious malady and can be easily treated. However, once

one has this malady it **will not** go away on its own. If you believe you have

this malady please seek medical attention. Common symptoms of this

malady are short-term memory loss, pains, unintentional magic, sparks and

extreme mood swings.

He stared at the page for a while, contemplating the meaning of this information. Then he heard the bathroom door close.

"What are you doing?" Hermione asked, although this time it sounded completely different. Her voice was soft, fragile, like a shy child's voice. She looked at him sweetly, as if curious, not accusing.

"I think you should take a look at this, I think you might have misdiagnosed yourself." Hermione walked over to where he was sitting on the couch and looked over his shoulder at the page.

"But I don't have all the symptoms." She argued.

"Which do you not have?" He asked, confused.

"I have not had any extreme mood swings." Draco laughed. His laughter made Hermione frown, thinking he was mocking her.

"I think your short-term memory loss is making you forget them, because you screamed your head off at me before going into the bathroom, but you are being completely sweet now that you are out of the bathroom." Hermione thought about it for a minute. Draco stared her straight in the eyes and almost pleaded with her.

"Would you at least come with me to Madame Pomphrey. She will be able to tell you right away if this is what you have, and if it is, then it can be fixed almost instantly and you will be fine. Wouldn't that be much better than continuing to think you are dying if you are not?" Unable to argue with his logic Hermione conceded. They walked down to the Hospital Wing together. They were both a bit nervous, scared to find out that Draco was wrong and she really was going to die. When Madame Pomphrey asked what was wrong Draco explained what was going on with Hermione, leaving out that she had spent the past several months thinking she was at death's door. He made it sound like it was something they had just noticed and were concerned about.

Madame Pomphrey runs the necessary tests to check for Hicca Magicus. She comes back looking somber.

"I have good news and bad news dear." She told Hermione. "Would you like Mr. Malfoy to leave the room so we can talk?" Hermione shook her head; they were in it together, for better or worse. It was a bit like being married, only with a lot more freedom and no children.

"Whatever you have to say to me you can say in front of Draco." Madame Pomphrey nodded.

"Well my dear, the bad news is…" she looked pityingly on Hermione, "you have Hicca Magicus. But the good news is it is very treatable, it is not a very serious disease, and you should be able to go back to your room in about three hours. You are lucky you caught it so early, it is a very annoying disease and it never goes away on its own, quite a pest it is." Madame Pomphrey rambled as she walked away to get what she needed to cure Hermione.

Hermione and Draco just stared at each other. Draco broke the silence.

"She is right you know," he smiled, "good thing we caught it early, it might of poorly effected you or even scared you into thinking something even worse was happening to you." They both laughed. Draco went back to the rooms and three hours later Hermione joined him.

"Draco," she said as she walked in through the portrait hole, "I know we should talk, but I am really tired and for once I am painless, so I really just want to go to bed." Draco nodded.

"I agree, you need your sleep, you are recuperating. Go on to bed, we will talk tomorrow." Hermione did not move. "Yes?"

"Well, I was wondering. You see, it has been a bit of a tough day, a tough few months really, so I was wondering…nevermind, it's stupid." Draco walked towards her.

"I am sure it is not stupid." He assured her. "What were you wondering?"

"Well, I don't really want to be alone tonight, I am in shock a bit, or disbelief I guess. I just feel like I need something real, something tangible, to ground me right now." Draco came closer. He hugged her.

"Well, you are in luck. I am both real and tangible." Hermione laughed. "Come on, let's go to bed." They went up to Hermione's room. Draco tucked her in all nice, before lying down beside her. He held her in his arms, pressing her tightly to his chest. He had never realized how much he feared losing her, at least not until it was no longer a fear weighing him down. They fell asleep shortly after, finally at peace and relaxed.

**AN: Please review.**


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